Did Pickelhaubes have grey fittings in

[ROBB]

Did pickelhaubes have grey fittings in 1904 ? There is one on the estand dated 1904 on the rear peak . I thought the grey fittings were introduced late on in the war when they started to run out of brass . Or am I mistaken thanking you Rob

[MG34NZ]

Rob, A lot of pickelhaubes were reworked and reissued on a regular basis so this would be quite correct
Regards
Andrew

[leibregiment]

A lot were painted, might be worth checking

[ROBB]

Its the second one on the estand for sale ,looks like the fittings are grey painted steel . The helmet looks like a nice example though ,it just seems to me to be a lot of work replacing all the brass fittings with steel ones . I guess its just oe of those things they did in WW1 ,Cheers Rob

[1corps]

Rob, I agree with Andrew that a lot of pickelhaubes were re-worked during the war and re-issued. A pre-war pickelhaube would be brass fitting throughout. the field cover was issued to cover the shiny brass fittings while on manuevers. The change to grey metal was late 1914-1915 period and definite war time issue. A lot of pre-war helmets were re-fitted with grey metal parts later on when needed. Make sure though the replaced parts are period. It is fairly easy to replace parts so see if you can determine if it was recently done. I hope that helps. Mike.

P.S. - The first pickelhaube on e-stand is missing the visor trim, but that can be easily replaced.

[GWA]

The Pickelhaube in question appears to have two different unit marks on the rear protector. I can't make them out clearly. It also has a garniture stamp, the roman numeral "I" beneath the unit marks. The garniture indicates that the helmet was returned to the depot for repair one time. I would bet that it was sent back for repair and reissue in an earlier life and then later salvaged for parts and that the rear guard was taken from salvage parts and added to the 1915 model helmet when it went in for repair. I believe that the depots may have dispensed with garniture stampings by 1915. Of course I may be totally wrong also.