Dragoon Officer Helmet

Dragoon officer's helmet model 1874. The helmet is composed of: The bomb: a single piece of cast steel sheet, stamped with a balance, planed with a hammer and polished with a brush. It is pierced at the top with four suction holes (diameter 15 mm), the inside of the bomb is varnished black with copal to prevent oxidation of the steel. The visor: also made of steel sheet, is inclined at 53 degrees below a horizontal plane passing through the junction of the visor and the bomb. It is bordered by a 16 mm wide copper circle placed astride its edges and fixed at the ends by a rivet. The underside of the visor is covered in leather. The neck cover: also made of sheet steel, consists of: a circular strip on its flat, apparent height, 24 mm, welded under the rear edge of the strip that it extends, it has three steel nails with half-spherical heads (diameter 8 mm) riveted inside; a second concave strip, forming a groove, with rounded angles and welded inside, at the bottom of the first. Like the visor, the neck cover is edged with a 16 mm wide copper setting, placed on horseback. The underside of the neck cover is covered in leather, and its edges are caught in the setting of the circle. The headband: made of copper, stamped with a flaming grenade surrounded by laurel leaves is adhered to the bomb. Its base rests on the visor and its ends are riveted with a bomb in the part hidden by the rosette of the chin strap. The chin straps: each chin strap is composed of 15 copper scales cut alternately with three or two festoons, which decrease in width from the top one, which is 35 mm, to the last one, which is only 20 mm. These scales are fixed by wire crampons, flattened on a leather core lined with black sheepskin. The right chin strap is decorated at its end with a small riveted copper plate to which is escaped a buckle also made of copper. The upper scale of each chin strap is covered with a mobile copper rosette, independent of the chin strap. It is circular in shape (diameter 42 mm) representing four rushes in relief. The bomb: it is surmounted by a copper crest composed of two fins, a mask and a covering. The fins, placed vertically at a distance from each other of 32 mm in front and 25 mm behind, have the shape of a curvilinear triangle convex at its upper part and which connects with the bomb by its concave base forming a scalloped edge. This edge is fixed to the bomb by means of two copper screws with round heads in tallow drop which are stopped inside the helmet by square copper nuts. The fins are decorated with palmettes and a net at their upper edge; the edge is decorated with water leaves, all stamped in relief. A tinned sheet metal plate joins the upper edges of the fins and fixes the spacing. The mask serving as an anterior junction of the two fins by means of a weld, is stamped with a head of Medusa in relief. The covering, also stamped, represents the continuation of the hair of the head of Medusa with intertwined snakes (length 90 mm). The horsehair mane: dyed black for the troop, scarlet red for the trumpets. It is mounted on a sole of strong nourished cowhide, in which the horsehair is assembled in tinned brass wires with a piece of sheepskin glued with strong glue on the assembly; the space left empty between the two rows of horsehair is filled by a braid which starts from the top and follows the curve of the crest until its junction with the bomb. The mane is fixed to the crest by two copper screws with nuts. The plume holder: in stamped copper, height 32 mm, forming a socket, is fixed obliquely, from bottom to top, to the bomb, a little in front of the left chin strap, by means of two threaded rods crossing the bomb. The interior trim consists of: a turban and a headdress.