A Mint German Police Enlisted Man's Tschako with Parade Bush

This sturdy-framed shako has a green felt exterior, with a leather circular top, straight front and domed back with protruding neck guard, in the traditional police helmet style, that was established in 1920s and lasted until 1945. The front is adorned with a gilt aluminum Third Reich Police shako plate, illustrating a spread-winged eagle sitting upon an oak leaf clustered wreath centred by a swastika insignia. Immediately above the shako plate is an oval aluminum cockade, with a painted red centre surrounded by rows of silver gilt and black paint, attached to the helmet via a u-shaped prong on the back of the cockade and slid through a slot behind the shako plate. Projecting from the rear of the cockade and held in place by a metal loop is a black horse hair plume. There are two circular screened vents on either side near the top, to allow for proper ventilation. The post loops and the two buckles on the 16 mm wide leather chin strap are fabricated from aluminum, designating it as an enlisted man's helmet. Metal posts on either side hold the leather chin strap in place, resting upon the top of the visor. It also comes with a reinforcing, heaving stitched 20 mm wide leather strap sewn in place along the lower portion of the shako, around the circumference, covering the seams where it meets the visor and the neck guard. Both the visor and the neck guard have vulcanfibre uppers, with synthetic undersides finished in olive green. The inside has a butterscotch-coloured leather sweatband that is perforated along the front edge with five tiny rows of forty ventilation holes each, with an additional thirty-two holes for ventilation ringing the sweatband just below its scalloped edges, where it is stitched in place to the dome liner. It is size stamped "56" in black ink beside the seam where the two ends of the sweatband are stitched together at the rear. It comes with a retractable two-piece butterscotch-coloured nylon liner with wire supports in the dome, while the dome itself is maker marked with a diamond-shaped "GES. GESCH. FABRIKMARKE FREL BERLIN FIBER-TSCHAKO" insignia. It measures 170 mm x 245 mm x 155 mm in height, not including the plume and cockade, exhibiting very light crazing on the circular top, visor and neck guard, along with extremely light soiling on the sweatband, the fabrics remaining very clean, the stitching intact, Near mint.