WW1 GERMAN BAVARIAN OFFICER'S PICKELHAUBE

Nice quality blackened lacquered leather construction pickelhaube with gilt brass metal fittings. The pickelhaube features a rounded body and crown with stitched on, extended, squared corner, front and rounded rear visors. The forward edge of the front visor is trimmed in gilt brass which is secured in position by two dome headed studs. Bavarian State Wappen supported by Lions and Motto ''In Treue Fest''. Helmet plate is attached by two screw posts which extend into interior through corresponding holes to pickelhaube front and are secured in place by two small nuts. The top crown of the pickelhaube has the distinctive Bavarian clover-leaf spike bass and officers spike. Two of the original four officers stars are intact. The pickelhaube has a multi-piece, convex, tapered, gilt brass chin scales and original single kokarden. Helmet is a bit miss-shaped at the back and some of the laquer is flaking off. Not a mint helmet, but displays fine on a shelf. Development of the pickelhaube may be traced back to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV who initiated the original design and introduced it for wear by most of the Prussian line Infantry regiments on October 23RD 1842. The pickelhaube became a visual symbol of Prussia's military might and underwent numerous modifications starting in 1860 and continuing right up until 1915. The demise of the pickelhaube began in the fields of WWI as a result of increased head wounds suffered by the German troops which were mainly caused by grenade and shell fragments. As a result of the increased head wounds and the development of the first "modern" steel helmets by the French army in early 1915 and by the British army later that year the German army began tests for their own steel helmet at the Kummersdorf Proving Grounds in November, and in the field in December 1915. An acceptable pattern was developed and approved and production of the new steel helmets began at the Eisen-und Hüttenwerke, AG Thale/Harz, in the spring of 1916. After the introduction of the M16 helmet the pickelhaube was relegated for wear only on ceremonial occasions.