Original U.S. WWI British Made M1917 Doughboy Helmet with Museum Quality Post War Painted Insignia - Supply Company 6th Marines, Machine Gun Company, 2nd Infantry Division
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Original Item: One-Of-A-Kind. This is a genuine British-manufactured WWI Mark I Brodie “Doughboy” helmet fitted with its original liner and chinstrap and later decorated with a remarkably convincing hand-painted representation of the insignia of the Supply Company, 6th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Brigade, 2nd Division. The helmet itself is completely original to the Great War period, while the painted unit insignia was added after the war for display purposes and deliberately aged to reproduce the appearance of original service-applied paint. The work is extremely convincing at first glance, but after careful examination we are certain that the insignia is a later addition and not original wartime decoration.
The paint is worn, and definitely shows use, but it has a great look and the colors are still easily discernible. The underside of the rim is stamped H.V. / 523. H is for Hutton & Sons Ltd of Sheffield who made helmets. V is for the steel supplier Vickers Ltd of Sheffield who provided the needed material for the helmets. The 523 is a steel production lot or batch number. The split-pin rivets on the chin strap bales is another method of identifying the helmet as being British-made. The liner is still present and the felt pad is retained. The entire chinstrap is present and still in solid condition. The shell has some denting along the rim as shown.
The best feature of this helmet is definitely the added hand painted Supply Company, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division - Indianhead Division emblem in the center of the front of the helmet. Marines under this division used specific colors and shapes behind the "Indianhead" to designate which unit they were in, and the "green diamond" indicates the 6th Marine Regiment, Supply Company. This is one of the only times they ever used army style unit patches, and generally each regiment used a different background shape, with the colors designating which battalion they were. The Unit Insignia is a bit faded, but looks very nice.
The U.S. Marine Corps did not field divisional size units during WWI, so they were made part of the divisions of the U.S. Army. . In fact, the entire 2nd Division was for a time during WWI commanded by U.S.M.C. Major General John A. Lejeune himself!
This example is especially interesting for its combination of an original British-made Mk. I shell, H.V. / 523 production marking, original liner and complete chinstrap, and historically correct postwar representation of the green-diamond Supply Company, 6th Marines insignia. The deliberately aged insignia should always be understood as a later display addition rather than original battlefield-applied paint.
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