I have been on the hunt for a Mk II flashed to the Polish Brigade in exile for some time and they do not come up for sale in the market place very often .
One has to be extremely diligent in there search as there are far more fakes being offered for sale than original period flashed examples .
For me there is only one other helmet that could grace my collection that could possibly sit higher on my display shelf.
I contacted a fellow collector a couple of weeks ago well knowing he had three such flashed Mk II's in his private collection and was pleasantly surprised when he offered to part with this example a true gentleman he is .
The helmet body was produced by EC&CO and has a nice textured finish showing definite wear and a nice used patina,The liner was produced by JCS&W Ltd and is 1941 dated.
I am quite pleased to say that stewardship of this particular Mk II has changed hands and I am confident that the eagle was WW II period applied but is not an obvious and or widely recognized pattern and feel it stands a very good chance of being an early variation that was not widely adopted and was possibly applied for a very short period of time while the Polish Army in exile was being reconstituted in Scotland in early 1940.
This of course at this point is only speculation and a theory as there is no period evidence in the form of images to support this but it does cause one to pause and ponder the possibilities as there are other one off period variations to the Polish eagle known to have been applied to helmets.
Regards Mark
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