Imperial German Brunswick Hussar Officer Busby Husaren-Regiment Nr 17

This is an original officer’s fur busby — a Kolbak (Pelzmütze, fur cap) — of the Braunschweigisches Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17 (Brunswick Hussar Regiment No. 17), the celebrated Death’s Head Hussars of the Duchy of Brunswick. The cap was previously catalogued as a British 17th Lancers busby; that attribution does not hold. The 17th Lancers wore the lance cap (Tschapka), not a fur busby, and their battle honors are those of the Crimea and India, not Peninsula and Waterloo. The fur busby form, the Totenkopf (death’s head), the campaign honors struck into the brass bandeau, and the surviving Fangschnur (cap cords) identify the cap conclusively with the Brunswick regiment.

The body is built over a stiffened foundation and covered in natural black fur, cylindrical with the characteristic flat crown of the pattern. The red cloth bag (Kolpak) is present, attached at the left and falling across the crown in red wool broadcloth. The crown carries a large bullion boss worked in gold wire and wrapped cording, with an upright oval loop at center, intact and holding its form. The Fangschnur survives in full length, woven in silver-grey metallic thread interspersed with blue silk in a herringbone pattern, terminating in matching acorn finials and gathered across the crown in the elaborate knotted arrangement of parade dress, with both finials present. This complete and correct cord set is itself a rarity, as surviving Brunswick officer Fangschnüre are seldom encountered. The chin furniture is brass: a graduated scale strap with a lion-mask terminal boss in high relief, accompanied by a separate leather chin strap and small buckle across the front. The front carries the regiment’s Totenkopf, the cranium set above crossed bones, with a curved brass honor bandeau above it. The interior retains its original lining, a buff leather band and a gathered, quilted silk crown pad of the period. The bullion boss, the full bullion Fangschnur, the quality of the fittings, and the scale chin strap together mark this as an officer’s cap rather than an enlisted or one-year-volunteer example.

The regiment traces to 1809, when Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick, raised a corps of volunteers in black to fight Napoleon, the origin of the Black Brunswickers and of the regiment’s funereal palette and death’s-head device. The corps served alongside the British through the Peninsular War and at Waterloo before the Brunswick cavalry was carried, after German unification, into the Imperial German Army as Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17. In 1883 the Brunswick-pattern Totenkopf was formally re-authorized for the regiment in memory of that lineage. The death’s head appeared on only four headdresses in the entire Imperial German Army — this regiment, the Brunswick Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 92, and the Prussian Leib-Husaren Regiments Nr. 1 and Nr. 2 — which places this regiment’s headgear among the most recognizable and sought-after of the Kaiserreich.

The brass bandeau carries the regiment’s battle honors. The full roll reads Peninsula – Sicilien – Waterloo – Mars la Tour; on this cap the front leather strap obscures part of the scroll, leaving PENINSULA and WATERLOO legible. It was precisely these two honors, read in isolation, that produced the earlier British misattribution. Yet Peninsula and Waterloo belong to the Brunswick regiment, whose ancestors fought both campaigns, and not to the 17th Lancers, who carried neither.

Condition is poor and must be stated plainly; the piece is restorable but is presented honestly as-is. The fur covering is in an advanced state of deterioration, with extensive hair loss across the entire surface and the heaviest loss at the lower band, the rear face, and the base edge, where the hide substrate is exposed and shows dryness and cracking consistent with well over a century without conservation. A period leather repair patch, sewn with consistent stitching, is present on the rear lower section, evidence of attention during the cap’s working life or early storage. The remaining fur ranges from intact black hair at the upper body to thinned, brownish hair at the worn areas, with white particulate debris from the deteriorating hide visible throughout. The red Kolpak is present and structurally sound, showing handling soiling and compression. The bullion boss and Fangschnur, though tarnished and oxidized, retain their integrity and remain attached. The chin strap leather has dried and stiffened but is present. The Totenkopf and honor bandeau are both present and legible. The interior lining is present and intact.

An officer’s Kolbak of Husaren-Regiment Nr. 17, complete with its correct Fangschnur, is an artifact of museum-level rarity. Period examples of this regiment’s headgear survive in very small numbers, and the survival here of the complete cord set, bullion boss, lion-mask chin boss, Totenkopf, honor bandeau, original bag, and interior lining as a single ensemble is seldom matched. Condition notwithstanding, completeness of this order on so scarce a regimental cap is exactly what serious collectors and institutions of Imperial German cavalry pursue.