Foundations

Developing the Eye

The first and most important thing to do when starting any kind of collection is to gain as much knowledge as possible about the subject. This is especially true where antiques are concerned and, make no mistake, these helmets are definitely antiques. Lurk around relevant forums, peruse internet auctions and read as much as you can. I can’t stress enough how vital this is in this hobby. Arming yourself with a great deal of knowledge will allow you to develop a good eye –and a good eye can go some way in compensating for a modest budget or even save you from a potential pitfall.

Form, Country & Cost

This website deals primarily with the helmets which in my view are required to build a foundational collection of helmets belonging to the major Great War combatants. Therefore, most of the rarer (and more expensive) helmets will be beyond the scope of this site, though every collector should eventually want to acquaint themselves with them. By the time you have found them and are willing to part with the funds necessary to purchase them, you will probably have long since outgrown the usefulness of the material presented here.

You may choose to focus your collecting on one particular country –Imperial Germany, for example, has a great many helmet manufacturers and variants available. Or, you could have a collection consisting of only M15 Adrian helmets used by many different countries. What I will set forth here, however, is the rationale for the foundation of a collection with a broad scope prioritizing the major combatants of the War, unique helmet forms and with cost a significant factor in the realization of their procurement. Put simply: a collection of very different-looking helmets from the major powers involved, for the least amount of money.

A collection such as the one described above provides an excellent starting place for the new collector because it is both broadly representative of the combatants and makes for an interesting display. It also allows the new collectors to get a feel for many different helmets and to better decide which are their favorites, should they wish to specialize later on.

With this as our goal, I have compiled a list of some prominent pieces that might comprise an advanced collection of Great War helmets, loosely arranged into three tiers by their approximate price range. I’ve stayed away from assigning strict monetary values to specific helmets, as there are a great many factors that can influence this value: condition, uniqueness, attribution, rarity, etc.

The Three Tiers of Helmet Value

3^rd Tier $1,000 – $10,000	Helmet	Country
	The Queen Elizabeth	Belgium
	Turkish Models M16, M17, M18	Turkey (Ottoman Empire)
	Any Stahlhelm Variant	Imperial Germany
	The Berndorfer	Austro-Hungarian Empire
	Farina helmets	Kingdom of Italy
2^nd Tier $500 – $1000	M15 Adrian	Imperial Russia
	M15 Pickelhaube	Imperial Germany
	M16, M17, M18 Stahlhelm	Imperial Germany
	M17, M18 Stahlhelm	Austro-Hungarian Empire
	Brodie, War Office Pattern	Great Britain
	Portuguese Model 1916	Portugal
1^st Tier $100 – $500	M15 Adrian	Belgium
	Italian Model 1915	Kingdom of Italy
	M15 Adrian	France
	American Model 1917	United States of America
	Helmet, Steel, Mark I	G.B., Canada, ANZAC, USA

Many helmets not appearing on the above list (the Japanese Model 1917, for example –no known copies extant, American experimental helmets, etc.) can generally all be considered 3^rd Tier helmets, while helmets of lesser-known nations involved in the War (Greek, Serbian, Polish, Czech, etc. M15 Adrians, Romanian and Bulgarian Stahlhelm, etc.) tend to fall towards the upper-2^nd Tier. Also, the position of certain helmets is only an approximation. For example, Brodie’s Steel Helmet, War Office Pattern occupies a 2^nd Tier position in the table above. However, this position represents a helmet in a condition typically encountered. A truly exceptional piece could easily push this or any helmet into the 3^rd Tier. This would likewise be the case for helmets with unique camouflage, elite unit attributions, etc.

As this site is aimed at the beginning collector, we will focus only on the helmets within the 1^st and 2^nd Tiers, i.e., those generally available for less than $1000.

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