Description
This is a very honest and solid example of a line rank German/Prussian combat hat best known as a Model 1895 Pickelhaub. The Pickelhaube, also Pickelhelm, is a spiked or ball topped leather and metal helmet that was worn in the 19th and early 20th centuries by Prussian and German soldiers of all rank. The helmet is adorned with a front brass plate (“wappen”) with the cypher of WR which stands for Friedrich Wilhelm, the Kaiser.
This example recently surfaced at an estate sale of a family in Knoxville, Tennessee. A member of the family entered US military service in 1917 and spent two years in Germany and France as an Army infantryman. This item was brought back as a souvenir by the soldier and it has never been offered on the open market before. It is a very solid example of the famous and a bit funky hat worn in that era.
The rounded top signifies a cannonball which was used on all artillery related headgear of the era. The brass plate on Pickelhaub was replaced by grey oxidized steel examples by the Regulations of 1915 but the M1895 brass plate examples were still issued in the field until the end of the German Empire in 1918.
