Dragoon Officer's helmet : Austro-Hungarian army

Black painted steel helmet with brass fittings. Roman style comb richly embossed on either side with a lion attacking a snake. Two-headed eagle with flared wings on the front of the helmet. Laurel style chinscales attached with embossed lion heads above the peak. Painted green under the peak. Lined with black cotton sateen.

This helmet would have been worn by an officer in one of the fifteen dragoon regiments in the Austro-Hungarian cavalry circa 1914. As the First World War progressed, these helmets would were usually painted or covered in a grey linen cover to make them less visible. The uniforms, which were previously vibrant blue and red, were also changed to grey during the First World War to draw less attention to the wearer.

This helmet was collected by Robert Emil Luks. Luks, an Australian who served with the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train under the name Luxbridge, during the First World War, lived and worked in Europe during much of the 1920s and 30s and amassed as a 'hobby' a substantial collection of German and French uniforms and headdress which dated from the beginning of the First World War before more practical less colourful uniforms and steel helmets were adopted. His collection was purchased in its entirety by the Australian War Memorial in 1937 as a means of providing colour to its displays and to demonstrate the changes which took place in combat uniforms between 1914 and 1916, when Australian troops entered the fighting on the Western Front.