Today for Gus’ Gear I have another Baden helmet, this is a Kugelhelm, artillery helmet with a ball in place of the spike. The ball represents a cannon ball. This helmet is a wartime produced M1915, with a leather shell, like the prewar models, but with stamped steel fixtures painted field grey. A cloth cover would have been worn in the field during combat to protect the helmet and camouflage it.
The view of the right side shows the Reichskockarde, painted black, white and red. This view also shows that the stitching of the rear visor is partially missing, this is fairly common in the leather helmets and is exacerbated by the common practice of setting the helmet on a shelf resting on the visors. The front visor has a little more support for the stitching with the split pin stud that connects the trim to the helmet body, but the weight of the helmet is born by the stitching of the back visor. The cotton or linen thread has aged and while wool retains strength for over 100 years, vegetable fibers tend to become weak and brittle much sooner, resulting in the stitching breaking. The best way to display these helmets is with some sort of stand that supports the body of the helmet without the visors contacting the shelf. Even a water glass will serve this purpose.
The view of the left side of the helmet shows the Baden Kockarde with yellow, red and yellow colors. The yellow portion is lacquered brass.
This view of the liner shows the type of liner found in all enlisted Pickelhauben. The reinforcement plate under the spike base is visible as well as the split pin studs. You can see how the split pin studs are fixed to attach them as well as one of the leather wedges that holds the Wappen in place. The distortion shown here is fairly common to leather helmets that have been stored on their side with no support for the body. The front part of the helmet usually holds the shape better because of the metal visor trim. Here one can see how the rear visor has lost about a fourth of the stitching holding it in place. This can be restitched, although it is a slow and difficult process to do it correctly. Often helmets will be encountered that have had the visors glued in place, this often does irreparable damage to the leather.