HELMET OF THE REPUBLICAN GUARD ON HORSE OF PARIS, model from 1907, Third Republic. 26375

HELMET OF THE REPUBLICAN GUARD ON HORSE OF PARIS, model from 1907, Third Republic. 26375

Full steel helmet. It consists of a bomb, a visor and a neck cover, both surrounded by a brass bangle folded astride the outer edge, a headband, two chinstraps, a crest, a mane of black horsehair approximately 60 cm long, and a feather holder.
All fittings are brass.

The bomb, made from a single stamped piece. It is pierced inside with 4 suction holes for ventilation. Visor lined with green waxed morocco (width 5.5 cm). Neck cover with missing morocco lining.

Brass frontal headband stamped in relief with two laurel branches tied together by a ribbon to which is attached a Legion of Honor awarded to the City of Paris on October 9, 1900; in the center, above the branches, are represented the arms of the City of Paris surmounted by a ribbon bearing the inscription “FLUCTUAT NEC MERGITUR”. H from headband to front 6.7 cm.

Crest composed of two fins (H 8.2 cm) stamped in relief with a decreasing series of gadroons surrounded by a beaded ribbon and separated from each other by an acanthus leaf and a fleuron. Each fin is attached to the bomb using two brass screws; mask stamped with 4 horizontally striped ribbons separated by three smooth ribbons, in the lower part a palmette is stamped in relief and in the upper part a jellyfish head, also stamped in relief (H of the mask 11 cm); the top of the crest is covered in the front part with a "cover plate" representing in relief the hair of the Medusa head (L 9.5 cm, width 4.4 cm).

Crest ornament composed of a brass olive stamped with foliage (H 2.4 cm, diameter 4.7 cm), a brass socket stamped with laurel leaves (H 2.6 cm, diameter 1.8 cm) and an egret in scarlet horsehair (H 5 cm) with at its base an olive in scarlet braided wool 8 mm high. This ornament is attached to the crest using a threaded brass rod (H 1.8 cm, diameter 0.6 cm) (the fixing nut inside the crest is missing).

The chinstraps are made up of two chin straps in strong cowhide covered with black waxed morocco and each covered with fifteen brass scales festooned alternately with two or three festoons and stapled to the leather (widest scale 3 cm, narrowest scale 2, 1cm). At the lower end, the last scale is rounded in shape, and at the outer end the scale has two festoons stamped in one piece with a round rosette (diameter 4.4 cm). The chinstraps are attached to the bomb by means of a lock and are connected together by means of a black patent leather strap with brass buckles. Plumet holder with square section decreasing slightly towards the bottom (H 3.6 cm).

Interior headdress in leather cut into wolf teeth.

France.
Third Republic.
Good condition, no screws on the worn crest ornament, tear on the rear chin straps, crushed feather holder, worn interior cap.

Note :
In his work “The Gendarmerie Museum - 1871-1-45”, Éditions SPE BARTHELEMY, the author Eric Dagnicourt, senior gendarmerie officer and curator of the museum at the time, specifies that this model of headband on which the shield decorated with the arms of the City of Paris is reduced in order to overcome the Legion of Honor awarded to the city on October 9, 1900, was adopted on an unknown date but probably in 1907.