Rare pith helmet?

[Tim O'Keefe]

so it should be, that is the owner of the mine, flight instructor, born in Vienna regards sergio

Never used by te Germans?

Hi Sergio

Thanks for the outstanding photo's Should have known as i have seen these pics before. Glad to know this is the same sunhelmet. My comment earlier was based on the fake insignia which is what caught my eye and has ruined this once nice helmet imo. Even if you replace it with original insignia now, these photos show there was no insignia during the War....

kind regards
Tim

[Jos L C]

Interesting picture, looks like there's a blue bevo eagle on the shirt ..
Any chance to see a close-up of that part of the pic ?

Jos.

[chainsawrich]

Bringing this back up with a question. How does one tell the French version from the German ?

I have one also and the only markings on it are on the underside brass vent ring - BTE S.G.D.G.

[Andy C.]

Or a full thread of the helmet/pic??

[Tim O'Keefe]

Bringing this back up with a question. How does one tell the French version from the German ?

I have one also and the only markings on it are on the underside brass vent ring - BTE S.G.D.G.

This thread is a sad reminder of when greed can overcome common sense. A really nice helmet with photograghic provenance to the War, then someone recently stuck a fake LW eagle & shield on it to increase the value after seeing a simlar example on a dealer's website.

There is no way to tell the difference without provenance. The German LW used the French blue helmets but did not always badge them as the threadstarter clearly shows. The KM did use the green French helmets and did badge them just to make it more confusing.

Here again is Jos post # 8.

"10 - 15 years ago a bunch of these showed up, think Weitze had quite a few those days, they didn't have any insignia, all were added later."

Jos.

Many have been badged with the fake LW eagle to enhance their value, like the threadstarter sadly which is a real shame, as it has actual provenance.

Agree with Andy, lets see the helmet chainsawrich?

[chainsawrich]

Its French made from what I could find. The SGDG means Sans Garantie Du Gouvernement.

I will post a few pics of mine.

[chainsawrich]

[chainsawrich]

[chainsawrich]

[colt45s]

the sweat band has JHS stamp in gold ... is this the maker?

[chainsawrich]

[Jos L C]

The standard German pith helmet has 6 panels, not 4 ..
These particular helmets were French made as far as I know and were quite cheap couple of years ago.., think they were 200/300 euro then, without insignia.
Also the brown sweat band looks the same material and color as the liners in French helmets.
Don't mix them up with the standard blue German pith helmet, because those are rare.
Confusion makes the money.

Jos.

[Tim O'Keefe]

Agree nice French made helmet. As Jos mentions, most of these were found recently as surplus without badges. The German made LW blue helmets are rare and desirable vs these French made helmets.

[panzer nco]

The standard German pith helmet has 6 panels, not 4 ..
These particular helmets were French made as far as I know and were quite cheap couple of years ago.., think they were 200/300 euro then, without insignia.
Also the brown sweat band looks the same material and color as the liners in French helmets.
Don't mix them up with the standard blue German pith helmet, because those are rare.
Confusion makes the money.

Jos.

Well Said..


Mike..