Original British Victorian Army Home Service Artillery Other Ranks Blue Cloth Dress Spike Helmet
In stock
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Original Item: Only One Available. This is a well-used but substantially complete original British Victorian Pattern 1878 Royal Artillery Other Ranks Service helmet, constructed from cork covered in dark blue wool cloth and retaining its correct artillery helmet plate, ball finial, gilt fittings, chained chinscales, and officer-quality interior. The helmet shows honest age and minor service wear, including some deterioration to the chinscale backing, some fading and finish loss to the interior, and a bit of looseness to the ball-finial baseplate.
The British Army introduced the Home Service helmet in 1878, replacing the shako for many infantry regiments and corps. Constructed from cork covered in blue wool cloth, it became one of the defining forms of British Army full dress during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. The pattern remained in use for full dress until the outbreak of WWI in 1914.
The front of the helmet has the correct artillery plate, with an artillery cannon at the bottom. The body consists of cork covered with blue wool, trimmed with leather and rounded instead of pointed. Liner is calfskin leather and silk. Interior of the front and rear visor is trimmed with fine green dyed leather, as is the interior crown, but there is some fading and loss of finish.
The helmet is in very good condition for its age. Showing signs of honest use, and wear from storage and handling over the last 120+ years. Overall, this is an very nice example that is perfect for the collector of 19th Century British Militaria. Size is marked on the sweatband as 7 with a fraction but the fraction part is torn off.
This helmet is particularly noteworthy for the combination of its 1878 Pattern Home Service construction, Royal Artillery plate, correct ball finial, gilt rose fittings, chained chinscales, and calfskin-and-silk interior. Its surviving materials and fittings identify it as a late Victorian example of the distinctive blue cloth helmet that formed part of British Army full dress during the final decades of the 19th century.
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