this is my first venture into haubes, I am more of a WWII collector but I always wanted a collector grade conditioned representative piece. This is an estate sale find never been in a collection. I believe the cockades are switched around but I haven't had the gumption to monkey around with 90 plus year old fittings yet! The Haube is very solid and the leather supple

2

#3

#4

#5

interior

Plate

cockade

cockade

I always wanted to do this Haube al a Hogans Heroes...

Very nice Bryan!!! I think it's great. I have just like it and can't stop looking at it!! LOL....you're right...the cockades are on the wrong side but that's easy to fix. Your liner looks fantastic as well! I love the crazing to the leather as well.....is yours as small as mine? My example is teeny-weeny size wise....

Congrats on a wonderful piece!!

Rob

Yes a bit of a shock when it arrived, they are incredibly small! this one is dated 1916 and has a size stamp inside of 55 and a half

Oh man, what a great helmet...and that Hogans Heroes touch is so cool! Nice pix, as always, from you Brian.

Robert

PS...I'd love to see some sz. 60 or 61 'melon head' spikes sometime. Certainly the Fatherland wasn't full of pinheads!

Thanks for the comments guys, these are very interesting helmets... you can see why they would want to adapt a steel helmet for 20th century warfare these would not offer much protection

No...they didn't offer any protection whatsoever! That's cool Brian! Mine (pictured below) is also dated 1916!
Robert: you mention large p.haubes: when I see pics of Hindenburg reviewing troops - he wore a haube. Now he wasn't a small man!!! His haube must have been quite big! I too would like to see a larger haube for once!

Anyways...Brian: here's mine (just up highway 401 buddy~LOL)

Rob

[attachmentid=105935]

Nice Rob, I like it displayed with the belt, I guess I just added another thing to the list!

Bryan

Hi Brian,
Nice haube with a interesting date as 1916 was the last manufacturing year for the haubes (eception do exist).
And yours is very nice shape.
Congrats
Cheers
Phil

Hi Bryan,

Congrats! Thats a neat M15 Prussian haube you have there. And it has a killer liner, too! These haubes are getting harder to get, especially in a neat condition such as yours.

By the way, is there any mark besides the 1916 mark and the size mark? And thats one very nice photography technique, how did you diffuse the extra light? And I really love the last pic, the Hogan Heroes touch.


Rob: yes, it displays very well with the belt, perhaps we could start an 'imperial german grouping' topic! Like Phil's haubes, Ron (tanker) haube, Luger and Mauser, and I think there is someone here who has a feldgrau with steelhelmet. That will be great!

Robert: You know what, I was laughing when I read yr comment, and I ended up testing my haubes, I think I found one of yr (almost) melon sized haube, its my Kurassier M15 haube, well, it does fit into my melon sized head (not all the way to the ear level tho) I am size 61 by the way, but its has no size mark, using measuring tape, it measures 23 CM (8") by 18 CM (7.1", perhaps size 59 or 60?.

Congrats again on a very neat haube ( with an envious killer liner, obviously )

Cheers,
Mush

Congratulations on a fine haube and a great photo ,as has been said its getting harder and harder to find an unmessed with helmet complete with chinstrap and both cockades .Rob.

Thanks for the comments everybody!

Mush I take all my pics outdoors preferably on overcast days and use a neutral grey background. We have a growing group of excellent picture takers on MCF I learn something new all the time!

here is the other stamping, hard to get a good shot but its pretty illegible

That looks like a dome stamp! LOL....seriously though...I'm thinking it's a manufacturing stamp...can you make anything out of it?

Rob

yes it looks almost identical, it is totally illegible though I cant make out a single letter

Hi Bryan,

Yes, the oval stamp is actually the maker's mark, but its kind of illegible tho, and there are quite a number of them using oval mark, I will try to check out the makers' mark, but I think it will be pretty difficult.
Could this pic be yr maker's mark?


Cheers,
Mush

Hi Bryan,

I have look over both marks again, they have the similar shape, 'lettering' etc, could we had just hit a jackpot here?

Cheers,
Mush

Hi Mush, I think you have definately indentified it! can you provide a little info on this maker? it would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Bryan,

I dont really know abt the haube makers, there were so many of them, haube making seems like a good business back then. I believe the stamp reads "Mühlenfeld & co, Barmen", nt Berlin. I tried googled it and Mühlenfeld & co, Barmen appeared. It seems that they were/are sword maker, Luger holster maker etc.

But it seems that Mühlenfeld was given contract for M15 haubes, at least Prussian M15 haubes, as yours is the 2nd M15 Prussian haubes with the Mühlenfeld mark. It seems that the demand for haubes had increased greatly and other haube makers were needed. And Mühlenfeld did only EM haubes, nt private purchase haubes.

Some makers only did a specific type of headgear, like Helbing u. Sackewitz, I believe it only made Kurassier metalhelme, as mine was made by Helbing and there are 2 other Kurassier helmets that I know were also made by Helbing.

Cheers,
Mush

Hi Mush and Bryan,
Interesting research.
Another info i can add is the fact the haubes makers did in fact "only" the main part of the haubes ie the shell. Often the other components of the haubes : brass or steel parts, kokades... were purchased from other makers and assembled in the factory. And sometimes when the contractor was enable to produce in the correct delays the makings of the haubes were sub-contracted and distributed by the principal brand. It means now-a-days you can find haubes with a maker marking in fact made by another one.
A bit long but I though would be interesting to know. And correct me if my english is not good enough.
Cheers
Phil

Mush,Phil, thanks for the extra information, very interesting reading, you guys know your stuff! I will make sure to keep that catalouged with my haube

Regards,
Bryan

Hi Bryan,
You're welcomed.
Phil