New Made Museum Quality Replica Item. Very Few Available. A shako is a tall, cylindrical military cap, usually with a visor, and sometimes tapered at the top. It is usually adorned with an ornamental plate or badge on the front, metallic or otherwise; and often has a feather, plume (see hackle) or pom pom attached at the top.

This Napoleonic Lancer’s shako helmet is a wonderful representation of the type worn by French Lancers during the Napoleonic wars. The front cap device is an imperial crowned letter “N” for Napoleon. Both sides of the helmet have lion’s head posts for the attachment of the chinstrap or cord, which is absent. 

The cockade is a French National cockade in white, red, and blue with an Iron Cross over it. The pom-pom is a full white example seated at the top. There is a full liner on the interior that wraps around the head which can be adjusted by the rope. These are all approximately 60cm or 7 1/2 US sized.

This is a tremendous museum quality replica, ready for further research and display.

The word shako originated from the Hungarian name csákó for the peak, which Hungarian border soldiers (Grenz-Infanterie) added around 1790 to their previously visorless stovepipe-style hats. Originally these hats were part of the clothing commonly worn by shepherds, before being added to the uniform of the Hungarian hussar in the early 18th century. Other spellings include chako, czako, sjako, schako, schakot and tschako.

From 1800 on, the shako became a common military headdress worn by the majority of regiments in the armies of Europe and the Americas. Replacing in most instances the light bicorne, the shako was initially considered an improvement. Made of heavy felt and leather, it retained its shape and provided some protection for the soldier's skull, while its visor shaded his eyes. It retained this preeminence until the mid-19th century, when spiked helmets began to appear in the army of Prussia, which influenced armies of the various German states; and the more practical kepi replaced it for all but parade wear in the French Army. The Imperial Russian Army substituted a spiked helmet for the shako in 1844–45 but returned to the latter headdress in 1855, before adopting a form of kepi in 1864. Following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, military fashions changed and cloth or leather helmets based on the German headdress began to supersede the shako in many armies.