Well, wear is not always a true indicator in my opinion, although yes, I prefer wear and age. Here is a helmet I received from a museum for doing restoration work for them. The helmet came to the museum in the 1930s. It shows very interesting signs of sloppy re-issue as there are paint runs under the camo. The camo is near perfect. It is by far, the frostiest camo helmet I have ever seen. T
WOW, that IS near perfect! Does the inside look as nice? I have three and all show much age and use. One has the name and address of the man who sent it to the USA long ago.
I sure like Tony's helmet. Seems as if Tony has it all.
The point was made earlier that many of these were actually done as postwar memorabilia & so never saw field use. That may be the case with this elegant job with its black border around the rim.
That may be the case with this elegant job with its black border around the rim.
The 7 July 1918 directive that all Stahlhelm would be painted into segments of green, yellow ochre, rust and brown, resulted in the troops being issued paint, not camo helmets. All sections were to be of equal size, sharp cornered and separated by a "finger wide" black stripe. The helmets were to be painted by the users with paint supplied. Consequently, all these helmets are unique, as every one was done by a different person. At least I know where the helmet came from, it is not a questionable "dealer" piece and I highly doubt a CEF vet went back to France in 1930 for a "visit" during the depression. So making a sweeping generalized comment like "black border around the rim" being wrong is highly questionable. Most of the "post 1918" helmets look nothing like the period helmets as the fakers were not as concerned as we are in 2005.
your helm is in beautifull condition you have the history of it, (with in reason) and it is the exception rather than the norm (imho) unless people here know different Most of the origonal helmets on sale to day would exibit wear or you would fall foul of e-bay for sure
What's the story on the helmet with the cross painted on the side? I am curious about this helmet.
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I thought I was done with Imperial German collecting but the addition of this new forum on uniforms and headgear has peaked my interest again.
What's the story on the helmet with the cross painted on the side? I am curious about this helmet.
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I thought I was done with Imperial German collecting but the addition of this new forum on uniforms and headgear has peaked my interest again.
Guten tag, all. Note i said MIGHT be post-war. Also i was not thinking of the 1st gen. fakers but of someone who may have done it - carefully - as a momento.
I've seen some convincing patterns done on Allied "trench art" helms, as well as genuine but badly done German examples that pretty much ignored the regs! In fact the more exact the job is the more it might be questioned.
I'm sure a combat trench helm could survive in that state of preservation but i imagine must be super-rare.
Tony Y. that is some AWSOME heargear you got. I have a nice camo M16 and a nice spiked. both I got about 12-14 years ago from Great War Militaria. I had the EXTREME pleasure of not only seeing their shop but His personal collection located on a different floor. it was unbelieveable! a whole floor (good sized too) dedicated to WWI. mostly Prussian. I highly doubt I'll ever see such a large and amazing collection again. I am going to post pics of my helmets. hopefully tomarrow afternoon. hope to hear your Guys thoughts. Glenn
Wow I would love to check out the Great War Militaria shop. The Military Antiques store in Petaluma, CA has some pretty awesome displays including a German machine-gunner complete with breastplate and M16-helmet front-plate:
A crude image of it here--
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