Well, I started on a pickelhaube theme four weeks ago, and therefore I wil keep on that track for a few weeks longer. Though really invented in Russia, and used by many nations, even Norway, the pickelhaube have become a powerful symbol of the German empire.
Here is a private purchase officers pickelhaube. Officers would buy their own kit, and so this was made by a private company in Berlin. Only a partial paper label remains, but at least the city is readable. As it was private property it does not have the ink stamps one sees in Mannschaften helmets, no Bekleidungsamt or unit marks.
This is a well used helmet. I like that. Though mint examples look great, I prefer for my items to have been there, done that. The history of the item is seen in the wear, and an item that has only been in storage does not fascinate me as much.
On the outside it is well maintained and looks very nice. The inside shows wear and handling. As the liner is in somewhat delicate condition I have not opened it up now to take photos inside the crown.
So, it has a nice Wappen (front plate), gilded, but with slightly subdued and powdery gilding. The gilding on the spike has been almost worn off by it being picked up by the spike. That was the way to do it so as to not get too much wear on the less solid parts of the helmet. There is a perlring around the spike.
The spike is the non-detachable type, and in one piece, it cannot be unscrewed to attach a Trichter, a horsehair brush.
Inside it is clear that this is not a cheap version of a pickelhaube. The liner is of silk with white calfskin sweatband. The top edges of the silk liner have thin slivers of springy whalebone sewn in. Using the word whalebone does not feel right to a Norwegian, as we would refer to any part of the skeleton of a whale as whalebone. This is really not that, it is baleen from the baleen plates of the Greenland right whale. The baleen was used for corsets, riding crops, and other things that needed a tough and yet flexible material, as in the edges of the pickelhaube liners.
The red color under the rear visor is well preserved. As for the green color under the front visor it is almost worn away by handling. The calfskin sweatband is worn and quite brittle, so I always handle it carefully.
Now, the sad story is: I bought this from a German family living in Norway, through a friend. This was the helmet of the great granddad of the seller. The family had WWI and WWII history, but did not want to keep any mementos. I asked to get the name of the original owner, but no! They did not care about the history and did not want their name connected to the helmet, so I will never find out what unit he was in and where he fought.
Still, a good, honest, officers M1895 type helmet that has clearly seen a lot of use.