A Prussian Reserve Officer Line Jäger Battalion Shako, 1899 Model

This sturdy-framed shako has a black felt exterior, with a leather circular top, straight front and domed back with protruding neck guard. The front is adorned with a two-piece Regiment of the Line insignia, consisting of a fire gilt Prussian eagle bearing the letters "FR" on its breast, with a silver Reserve Cross mounted between its feet. Immediately above the shako plate is an oval cockade in silvered copper wire, with a black velvet centre and reverse indicating a Prussian officer, attached to the helmet via a u-shaped prong on the back of the cockade and slid through a slot behind the shako plate. There are two circular screened vents on either side near the top, to allow for proper ventilation. There is a three-colour cockade of Imperial Germany on the right side, which was the only one designated to be worn on the shako. Original brass capped pins on either side connecting to the brass chin strap, consisting of thirteen staggered panels on either side and linked together in the centre via a post on the right strap and an insert loop on the left strap. The entire brass chin strap is supported by an intact underlying leather chin strap, with central buckle for adjustment. It also comes with a reinforcing, heavily stitched 22 mm wide leather strap sewn in place along the lower portion of the shako, around the circumference, covering the seams where it meets the visor and the neck guard. Both the visor and the neck guard have vulcanfibre uppers, with synthetic undersides finished in black and moss green respectively. The inside has a butterscotch-coloured leather sweatband and comes with a retractable two-piece olive green cloth liner with wire supports in the dome. It is handwritten in white marker with the size "56" in the dome. It measures 150 mm x 240 mm x 133 mm in height, not including the plume and cockade, exhibiting very light crazing on the visor, neck guard and the reinforcing strip, with tearing and light soiling on the sweatband from active wear, the cloth liner having come away from the underside of the sweatband at the front and extends to the mid-point on both sides, the exterior fabrics remaining very clean and the stitching intact. Better than very fine. (C:46)