Here is a rather peculiar pickelhaube, in several ways.
First of all, it is made of cardboard. I did not know this when I bought it, I did not realize that for several years, actually. But, yes, it is an ersatz cardboard helmet.
Very quick summary, I’ve repeated it many times already. The ersatz production was not “last ditch”, it was mainly 1914-15 when much more equipment and many more men were needed than planned for. So, all sorts of things were made in ersatz variants, and pickelhaube were made from felt, cardboard, steel plate, and more…
So, a pickelhaube made of hard cardboard. These are not very common. This is fitted with model 1915 painted steel parts. The chinstrap has model 1895 brass fittings, not an unusual mismatch.
It is from the Grand Duchy of Baden, so not common in that way too. Baden did not have a large army, so all Baden items are scarcer than from the kingdoms.
But, apart from being a cardboard ersatz there is another puzzling detail. Perhaps also necessitated by wartime lack of resources?
The imperial cockade is on the wrong side and there is no Baden cockade.
So what? Cockades are easily lost and easily swapped around, so that may have happened at any time post war, right? Yes, there is no doubt about that, but then…
On the right side there is no sign of wear from a cockade. But, there is wear below the chinstrap post from the attachment of the chinstrap. It has clearly been worn with the chinstrap down, without a cockade, and far from just once. I say that wear shows that there has not been a cockade on that side. So, they may simply have had too few cockades at the point when this one was made? Otherwise, on a well used and far from mint pickelhaube there really ought to be cockade wear on that side if it actually had had a cockade there during the war.
The helmet is marked to G. R. 110, the 2. Badisches Grenadier-Regiment Kaiser Wilhelm I. Nr. 110, part of the 55. Infanterie-Brigade in 28. Division of the Prussian army. They saw lots of action during WWI, like the Somme, Verdun, Cambrai, Spring Offensive, 3rd Aisne, Belleau Wood, 2nd Marne, Soissons… This helmet may have taken part in several of the wars worst battles. This helmet, stamped 1916, will probably not have been in the later battles, as it was superseded by the Stahlhelm, but may well have been at the Somme and Verdun, and possibly other battles.
So, a fascinating little helmet, I’d say.