Help with WWI French adrian helmet

[24thinfantry]

I focus mainly on WWII but I was at the local flea market and saw this helmet. I decided to take a gamble on it, knowing that's it's a French helmet. I would greatly appreciate any help and insight you all might have. The helmet has its original liner, but no chin strap. It has the Republique Francias badge.  The paint looks legit. It has a darker paint and under it there is a dark blue.  Also has the soldier's name engraved inside the lid and says "Galais".  I paid $50 for it but hopefully it's worth it.  I really would appreciate any information you all might have for me. Like I said, I do not collect WWI and bought it on a whim. 

[Wake1941]

You did well for $50, usually these are missing the liner. 

[24thinfantry]

Is there anything wrong with it? Or is this the original paint?  I heard they were painted blue, but did they field paint their helmets or anything?  Thanks for the help!

[24thinfantry]

A guy that I know wants to buy the helmet to resell. I asked him how much it's actually worth and he told me $100 USD.  I'm not well versed in these helmets but I feel like the value on this helmet is a little more than $100.  Is his appraisal accurate?  

[themick]

A righteous WWi French infantry helmet, and in nice shape, except for the missing chinstrap.  It's not unusual to find these with two coats of different paint on them.  The very early ones were a lighter shade of blue and were usually later painted over with the darker blue.  It would be nice to see a side view of the helmet to determine if it's one of the early ones.  On the early ones the lower part of the helmet is fastened on each side by two rivets, whereas the early ones have no rivets.  

Even if it's a later one, $100 is lowballing the value.  Nice helmet!

 

Steve

[24thinfantry]

Here is a side view.  If any more photos are needed please let me know. I greatly appreciate all the help!

[themick]

Very nice.  First pattern with no rivets on the sides.  These came out in 1915.  You can see the earlier lighter blue paint under the outer darker blue -- all perfectly legit.  I like that helmet!  (oops -- I see now in my above I made the mistake writing the early helmets had the two rivets...  Should have been later ones had the two rivets)

 

Steve

[24thinfantry]

Thank you Steve for all that information!  I would never have known that it was an earlier helmet. I'm starting to think that maybe I'll add this into my collection, seeing that it is an early example.  It would be amazing if I could figure out the soldier's information based on just the last name in the helmet. But it's neat enough just knowing it was worn by someone in the war. 

[Apache-8]

On 11/21/2020 at 9:29 PM, themick said:

Very nice.  First pattern with no rivets on the sides.  These came out in 1915.  You can see the earlier lighter blue paint under the outer darker blue -- all perfectly legit.  I like that helmet!  (oops -- I see now in my above I made the mistake writing the early helmets had the two rivets...  Should have been later ones had the two rivets)

 

Steve

Do you have any idea what point in time the rivets started showing up on the sides?

[themick]

1 hour ago, Apache-8 said:

Do you have any idea what point in time the rivets started showing up on the sides?

Here's the best article I know of on these helmets, with lots of pictures and good text.  This should answer your questions.

http://www.151ril.com/content/gear/uniforms/15

 

Steve

[Apache-8]

Thank you for the link it was very helpful