Czechoslovakia, Republic. Protectorate of Bohemia & Moravia Felt Police Helmet

This sturdy-framed helmet is fabricated from a pressed fiber material, with a grayish-green felt exterior. It is designed with a protruding visor at the front and a neck guard at the rear. The front is adorned with a helmet plate illustrating the Czechoslovakia coat-of-arms laying upon an angled square with linden leaves on each of the four sides, the plate measuring 74 mm (w) x 77 mm (h). The raised spine of the helmet with a two-part silvered metal strip running from the top of the helmet plate to its conclusion at the outer edge of the neck guard, the top portion of which features a repeating linden leaf design. The same type repeating linden leaf design appears on the silvered metal strip that runs along the base edge of the dome around the circumference, with all the strips held in place by small rivets. The silvered metal cockades on either side are in the form of a lion's head, with posts that run from the lion's chin, wrapping around the side brim and terminating at the outer edge, both of which measure 37 mm (w) x 63.5 mm (h) and are held in place by silvered bronze slotted inserts which are visible on the underside. The outer edge of the helmet is protected by a strip of silvered stripping that runs along the circumference. The underside of the visor and neck guard are lined with the same grayish-green felt as the exterior. Above each cockade are two reinforced ventilation holes with olive green finished eyelets. Inside, there is a 40 mm wide thin leather sweatband, emboss stamped with the maker mark "O.F. HESS" at the front, with a bow-tied brown ribbon at the rear. Riveted in place to the sweatband on either side is a leather chinstrap, with a pebble-finished chocolate brown upper and a raw underside, the strap on the left side with a metal buckle and a metal slider, the strap on the right side with eight die-holes, and when fed through the buckle on the left side and adjusted, ensures a snug fit to the wearer's head. The dome is lined in olive green cotton, stamped in black ink "727", marked "STÁTNI FILM" (State Film) within a rectangular box and dated "1951" within a rectangle box. The helmet measures 200 mm in width x 272 mm in length x 150 mm in height, exhibiting green oxidation on the helmet plate and on both cockades, along with a prominent dent on the left side just above the eyelets, a scuff mark on the right side, fraying in the black trim on the sweatband that exposes the thin wooden core, light soiling on the sweatband itself and the olive green cotton in the dome, the parts appearing to be original. Very fine.