English Captured Pith Helmet??

[ranxu1995]

Hello all, here is a pith helmet that I would want you all to take a look. The seller obtained it from a German POW vet's estate, who was captured in Tunis. Also from the vet himself is a POW art that he made while under captivity. Now on the pith helmet, I've seen captured and reissued foreign pith, but have not seen an English one. Do you guys think this hat is a possibility? Also have you seen ANY German used pith that only had one shield on them? Thanks in advance!

Ran

[BOB COLEMAN]

Anything is possible but with the lack of the tri color shield, this is certainly an easy item to produce to fool collectors with a story without any written provenance. As the Germans would have control over the insignia, it is difficult to believe they ran out of tricolor shields.

[ranxu1995]

Anything is possible but with the lack of the tri color shield, this is certainly an easy item to produce to fool collectors with a story without any written provenance. As the Germans would have control over the insignia, it is difficult to believe they ran out of tricolor shields.

That's what I was thinking, too. Maybe the POV captured the hat and put his own extra insignia on it? As you said anything is possible. Thank you for the input!

Ran

Btw here is the POV art piece from the same person.

[big ned]

It's interesting to note that the monogram on the lighter, which appears it could be a stylized 'HG', looks remarkably like the monogrammed DAK ring in this current thread.

gold and nielio dak ring plus period add for this style

Could it be the same? And what does it represent? A soldiers initials or a divisional sign perhaps? Maybe it's just a coincidence, a figment of my overactive imagination??





Regards, Ned.

[Wagriff]

Perhaps Fat Herman made a trip to Afrika and handed out a few souvenirs to mark the occasion?

I like the lighter,by the way! Very impressive details!

[Jerry B]

The sun helmet is not an British Army issue but is a design they used just this is not an issue version, though they did use requisitioned civilian examples in times of need. The Italians used a sun helmet of this design as well so who can say, it certainly seems old enough but it would be easy to add a German shield to it at any time.
Apart from the ovious buy the item not the story, it might be good but you need to have a good look at the mounting pins and see if they look to have been there for 70 years, though I doubt a POw would have been allowed to wear the helmet with insignia in captivity and also the shield would have been nicked by his captors or swapped for....

[HPL2008]

It's interesting to note that the monogram on the lighter, which appears it could be a stylized 'HG', looks remarkably like the monogrammed DAK ring in this current thread.

The design of the letters is a bit odd, but to be honest, the monogram on the lighter looks like "AB" to me.

[Gimmie]

The design of the letters is a bit odd, but to be honest, the monogram on the lighter looks like "AB" to me.

I agree. I believe the style on these 'gothic' letters are more cubed, which means the 'H' would obviously be a cube version of an A.

Regards,
Bas