Picture day for Imperial Headgear

Had the day off and I was re-arranging some things in my display case and thought it a good opportunity to get a couple of group pictures of my Imperial Headgear collection. I have a real weak spot for Imperial pieces, they are usually reasonably priced compared to 3R pieces, often they are unit marked which offers great research opportunities, and between the different parts of the German empire each with their own unique cockades and the range of German unit designations in the army for piping there are lots of variations to pick from.

In the first group of pics there are two camo steel helmets, a Hussar Busby and an NCO peaked visor. The helmet on the left with the thicker black stripe is a M16 Q66, inside is named twice to the same soldier. Liner has burn marks, remnant tape mark on top and under the visor where an old shipping label may have been attached. The Camo on the right is an M16 Bell, with chinstrap and liner (pillows intact). The Busby is pre-war and from the 6th Line Hussars (Husaren-Regt. Graf Goetzen (2.Schlesisches) Nr.6), they would have mustered as part of the VI Armee Korps in 1914 and were based in East Germany (their home cities are now part of Poland). The visor is an early war NCO visor, straight up Prussian which is the most common but just in really nice shape.

Thanks, Nick

Next group is the ubiquitous feldmutze which was issued to all German enlisted personal during the war. The one on the left is for the 12th Bavarian Infantry Reserve, the middle is from 13th Wurttemberg Pioneer and the one on the right with the green band is from the 4th Jager Battalion from Magdeburg.

Thanks, Nick

WOW great headgear thank you for posting...BILL

No disrespect meant at all but being a noob I'd swear those camo helmets were fake. Please don't take this as any offense because I know nothing about them. The hats are great and thanks for sharing them. I'm sure the helmets are good, but after all the fake helmet fiascos I just thought they looked 'weird'.

Btw, I'll delete that post if it's 'offensive'

You have some good examples those Hussar Busby's are getting real hard to find and pricey I have a plain Jane m16 and a prewar pickelhaube marked to the 29th inf. timothy

heavy_mech said:

No disrespect meant at all but being a noob I'd swear those camo helmets were fake. Please don't take this as any offense because I know nothing about them. The hats are great and thanks for sharing them. I'm sure the helmets are good, but after all the fake helmet fiascos I just thought they looked 'weird'.

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They were and are but his has plenty of pateina I would expect to see on the real deal The left one has the smaller lugs found on size 66 and larger the far right one with the bigger lugs 64 and smaller my plane one is ET 66 with the smaller lugs what is interesting some of the same makers made them in WW2. timothy

timothy said:

They were and are but his has plenty of pateina I would expect to see on the real deal

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I agree and the patina does not look at all contrived. I just meant when I saw them at first glance they looked 'odd' to me. Not ridiculous like the fluorescent Krylon camo fakes but strange still. I guess I just didn't expect to see something like this?

heavy_mech said:

No disrespect meant at all but being a noob I'd swear those camo helmets were fake. Please don't take this as any offense because I know nothing about them. The hats are great and thanks for sharing them. I'm sure the helmets are good, but after all the fake helmet fiascos I just thought they looked 'weird'.

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None taken, WWI camo's, although not as badly humped as WWII, are still out there and all should be looked at carefully. I'm far from an expert but in hand both have the right wear ang aging to them that I would expect, pins are intact and haven't been removed, and the inside liners are good. I do find a lot more color variation on WWI lids from how the paint "ages" over the last 100 years and how they were stored, but both fell within color patterns I've seen on good lids so I felt good about them.

I'll try to get some more detail shots tonight.

thanks, Nick