BACKGROUND: The Pickelhaube was designed by Friedrich Wilhelm IV and adopted by the Prussia Army in 1842. It was first worn on active duty in 1849, during the suppression of an uprising in the south-west German state of Baden. That state itself adopted a variation of the Pickelhaube not long after. The helmet was modified several times, mostly as a result of field experience garnered during the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian wars. By 1886, the Pickelhaube was the standard form of headdress adopted by the German army. In 1887 a leather chinstrap was introduced for enlisted ranks, with the flat chinscales used previously relegated to ceremonial occasions or exclusive to officers’ Pickelhaubes.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: A set of brass chinscales, in two parts, each effectively identical but for their meeting points and the straps behind them. Both sections begin with a 1 1/8" diameter, stamped brass rosette, each of which have two split prongs to their reverses, establishing them as being private purchase items. The first of the seventeen scales extending from either rosette is 7/8" wide, with each of them thereafter being successively narrower, and alternating between those with two curves (the odd numbered), and those with three (the even). Following the smallest scales are, to one half, a brass extension with a perforation to it, and, to the other half, a brass extension with a corresponding post to it. The reverses of each half are covered in black leatherette. A 7 1/2" long, blackened leather strap, with three prong holes to its end, extends from underneath the leatherette to the side with the perforated extension, and a corresponding, single-pronged buckle on a short strap extends from under the leatherette to the other side. The side with the longer strap also has a cloth retaining band positioned mid-way along its reverse, which the longer strap would feed through, double back upon itself, and then have one of its prong holes mate with the single-pronged buckle. All of the brass elements to both sections of the chinscales have a typical, light age patina to them, although the leatherette to each of their reverses is surprisingly unmarred, and the leather straps extending from under each of those is only lightly chafed and cracked.

GRADE ****                                     PRICE $295.00