GERMAN PRE WWI GUARD DU KORPS NCO RANK HELMET

A good, clean example of the early stepped peaked Guard Du Korps enlisted man's helmet, complete with original eagle, straps and front plate. Before describing this helmet, we would remind collectors that the metal helmets worn by cavalrymen of all nations were repeatedly damaged, this was the result of falling off their horses, and the helmets were constantly being restored by depot repairers. This is an example of that type of helmet. The basic skull is in excellent, undamaged, and unrepaired condition. At the rear of the lobster tail most of the silver trim from the right-hand side and the left-hand side is missing. This can be viewed on our website images. All the nickel rivet heads are in place. At the front of the helmet, all the nickel edging is excellent and in place. The eagle is undamaged, apart from an indentation to the half-moon-shaped eagle base. The eagle itself is loose on its base, but the base itself is very tight to the skull of the helmet. It has lost most of its finish and is with an NCO’s gilded crown, which itself has had a minor indentation. The chinstraps are the correct large size convex worn by all Guard Du Korps and Kuirassier Regiments. Complete with its single large-sized national red, white and black cockade and its NCO rank State cockade.  To the interior, the leather liner is complete. The helmet is maker marked ‘P Casten & Sohne’ underneath the front of the stepped peak. At some stage of life, the front plate has become damaged and has been replaced. In the process of this, the original hole for the original larger size plate is left exposed and again can be seen in our web images. Because of the damage and the period-replaced plate, the helmet is priced according to the condition and its history, and in our opinion, it is an exceptionally reasonably priced Guard Du Korps NCO’s helmet.

Ref; 95640