Wurttemberg Infantry Officer Pickelhaube Spiked Helmet w/Case Post-1897

This is an officer’s Pickelhaube (spiked helmet) of the Kingdom of Württemberg, complete with its original fiber carrying case. The helmet is identified to Württemberg by its front plate (Wappen) and to officer rank by the style of its cockades (Kokarden) — the serrated officer’s rings, with a silver ring at the national cockade (Reichskokarde) — together with its gilt fittings, convex chinscales, and silk-lined interior. It is the line infantry pattern, and the presence of the national cockade dates it to the period after 1897, placing it in the late Imperial and First World War era.

The shell is smooth black leather of officer’s quality, formed in the rounded German pattern with front and rear visors. The mounts are gilt, comprising a tall officer’s spike on its base, a rear spine, and the Württemberg front plate. Convex officer’s chinscales (Schuppenketten) of overlapping gilt links mount on rosette bosses at the sides. The cockades are the officer’s pattern with serrated silvered rings in the standard arrangement; the right-hand cockade is the national Reichskokarde in black, white, and red, the feature that marks the post-1897 dating, with the Württemberg state cockade at the left. The front plate, spike, and mounts appear original to the shell.

The interior retains its officer’s lining of cream silk with a tan leather sweatband, and bears a maker’s or retailer’s stamp on the lining panels "Johannes Kutter Stuttgart". An officer purchased his helmet privately from a military outfitter rather than receiving an issue piece, and these stamps record the supplying firm and often the city.

The Pickelhaube was the standard headgear across the German states in the Imperial period, each kingdom carrying its own arms on the front plate, as seen here. By the First World War the spiked helmet had become impractical at the front and was progressively replaced by the steel helmet from 1916, which makes surviving officer’s Pickelhauben in this configuration artifacts of the pre-war and early-war Imperial army.

The accompanying case is the correct period carrying case for an officer’s helmet, of black-grained fiber over a board frame with a fitted lid and leather catch tabs, of the conical form shaped to the helmet and spike. Original cases substantially increase the completeness and desirability of an officer’s helmet, as most were separated from their helmets over the intervening century.

Condition is very good overall. The leather shell is sound and retains its finish with expected age and light surface wear; the gilt mounts show honest mellowing of the original finish; the chinscales are complete and supple at the links; the cockades are intact; and the lining is present with age toning. The case shows surface and edge wear consistent with use but remains solid. No restoration is evident.

Württemberg officer helmets are encountered far less often than their Prussian equivalents, and a complete officer’s example with its original case is a desirable configuration for collectors building a Württemberg grouping or a representative collection of Imperial German officer headgear by state. The national cockade and smooth officer’s shell place it firmly in the late Imperial period, and the surviving case adds materially to its appeal. Only about 2.4 percent of the Kaiser’s army wore this helmet, and only some three percent of those were officers, which places a Württemberg officer’s example among the genuinely scarce survivals.