Original Austrian WWI Mail Home Helmet – US Captured
Up for sale is a very rare and original Austrian WWI helmet complete with its original finish, a partial liner, a partial chinstrap and areas of mail home markings from when it was sent home from Europe. An Austrian helmet in this condition alone is significantly harder to find compared to German WWI helmets – and already very desirable to imperial headgear collectors. With this in mind, having mail home markings and “Vet Art” inscribed by the US solider who captured it, makes this helmet all more desirable and hard to find.
Mail home helmets were commonly battle field pick ups, and sent home as souvenirs. During this period is was also common to write your name and address on the shell to ensure your war trophy made it mode. More so, it was also common for the US postal service to add stamps directly onto the shell. This helmet has it all, with areas of the soldiers full name and address, residue from the WWI era stamps which have rotted away, and lastly a really interesting inscription “Cootie Exit”.
The term Cootie developed in 1915-1917 on the Western Front in Europe and was used to describe a bug that infested humans with poor hygiene.
Batch Number : not marked
Manufacture : — 66
Up for sale is a very rare and original Austrian WWI helmet complete with its original finish, a partial liner, a partial chinstrap and areas of mail home markings from when it was sent home from Europe. An Austrian helmet in this condition alone is significantly harder to find compared to German WWI helmets – and already very desirable to imperial headgear collectors. With this in mind, having mail home markings and “Vet Art” inscribed by the US solider who captured it, makes this helmet all more desirable and hard to find.
Mail home helmets were commonly battle field pick ups, and sent home as souvenirs. During this period is was also common to write your name and address on the shell to ensure your war trophy made it mode. More so, it was also common for the US postal service to add stamps directly onto the shell. This helmet has it all, with areas of the soldiers full name and address, residue from the WWI era stamps which have rotted away, and lastly a really interesting inscription “Cootie Exit”.
The term Cootie developed in 1915-1917 on the Western Front in Europe and was used to describe a bug that infested humans with poor hygiene.
Batch Number : not marked
Manufacture : — 66
Up for sale is a very rare and original Austrian WWI helmet complete with its original finish, a partial liner, a partial chinstrap and areas of mail home markings from when it was sent home from Europe. An Austrian helmet in this condition alone is significantly harder to find compared to German WWI helmets – and already very desirable to imperial headgear collectors. With this in mind, having mail home markings and “Vet Art” inscribed by the US solider who captured it, makes this helmet all more desirable and hard to find.
Mail home helmets were commonly battle field pick ups, and sent home as souvenirs. During this period is was also common to write your name and address on the shell to ensure your war trophy made it mode. More so, it was also common for the US postal service to add stamps directly onto the shell. This helmet has it all, with areas of the soldiers full name and address, residue from the WWI era stamps which have rotted away, and lastly a really interesting inscription “Cootie Exit”.
The term Cootie developed in 1915-1917 on the Western Front in Europe and was used to describe a bug that infested humans with poor hygiene.
Batch Number : not marked
Manufacture : — 66