Gents,

 

I thought I would post a Model 1895 Prussian Land Gendarmerie Pickelhaube for a Senior NCO that I picked up recently. This spike helmet was for Mounted Gendarms as opposed to Gendarms on foot.  Notice the spike base has four arms instead of the round base for Gendarms on foot.  It is identical to the military Guard Grenadier spike helmets except it is property marked to the Land Gendarmerie.  

 

This black leather helmet has the typical issue style fingered liner and construction. It has brass fittings throughout and the large Prussian Guard eagle front plate is very detailed with a large nickeled Guard star on the eagle's chest. This helmet also has the Officer style of brass chinstrap that was worn by Senior NCOs. Notice the helmet has one Officer style national cockade and a similar Prussian state cockade as is correct. The interior is stamped with the Land Gendarmerie property stamp on the interior leather corpus.

 

The Prussian Land Gendarmerie was a Prussian Government military police organization that policed Prussia and Eastern Germany. This particular helmet was also worn by this Gendarm after 1918 until 1926.  Notice the front plate has been modified by carefully removing the crown from the head of the large Guard eagle for wear during the time of the Weimar Republic.  

 

This helmet is unmolested complete with "attic found" grime and bird poop.  I have elected to leave it uncleaned as I know what it would look like polished up bright and shiny.  I can always clean it later but I can't put 100 years of grime, aka patina, back if I remove it.

 

 

that is cool-

Just leave it- it is beautiful!

I agree with Mr J. Leave as be. Also was drawn to the uncovered eagle, I’ve never seen that before. Excellent addition.

21 hours ago, Preppy Picker said:

I agree with Mr J. Leave as be. Also was drawn to the uncovered eagle, I’ve never seen that before. Excellent addition.

 

Thanks for the kudos gentlemen.  Erich Radecke in "Polizei-Abzeichen Helme - Heraldik - Historie 1.Band - bis 1918" discusses this Weimar Republic crown modification and shows a couple of examples; one on p.32.  These are few and far between in my experience and he shows such a front plate with the crown removed circa 1923.  This Guard eagle plate is the new model (1895) version with this circa 1919 modification.  

 

As to cleaning... In the last few years I have come to the decision to generally lightly clean or leave attractive patina alone.  That is a fairly easy decision for something such as this Pickelhaube.  This helmet is in good condition with tight stitching and it is complete.  The tarnish to the brass fittings is even and not spotty or ugly.  There is no active rust or other problems so I don't have to intervene or restore.  So, here my helmet sits like a 100 year old man appropriately showing his age.  

I just found out the "L G 11" property marking number in these helmets indicates the year of issue.  So, the Land Gendarmerie markings in this helmet indicate issue in the year 1911.  I had previously thought this number might have indicated a unit or a bailiwick (area).    

 

Research pays off.

 

 

Awesome helmet.