Model 1867 Officer's parade pickelhaube : Garde du Corps, German Army

Model 1867 pickelhaube with a tombak body and silver visor trim, rivetting and edge reinforcements. There is a raised reinforcement ridge at the rear of the crown. The helmet features a stepped visor and lobstertail neck guard (nackenschirm). The frontplate (wappen) is made up of a silvered garde star with the words, 'MIT GOTT FUR KONIG UND VATERLAND 1860' [With God For King and the Fatherland]. At the centre is a Prussian Black Eagle on a gold background, all surrounded by white enamel with, 'SUUM CUIQUE' [To each his own] and a wreath with red berries, all in gold. The helmet is surmounted by a white metal eagle with back-swept wings and wearing a gilded brass crown. The eagle stands on an oval silver base that is secured to the helmet by a single wing nut. The brass convex chinscales (schuppenketten) are mounted over a leather strap with metal buckle and are secured to the helmet with screw fixtures which pass through trefoil rosettes. Beneath these on each side are the Prussian (left side) and Officer's (right side) cockades. Stamped on the body beneath the left cocade is, '59'. The interior of the helmet features a private purchase liner comprising a two -piece yellow silk skull cap sewn to a leather sweatband. The underside of the visor and neck guard are lined with red velvet. On the inner crown is stamped, 'C E JUNCKER 1914'. Stamped on the underside of the neck guard trim is, '58'.

This helmet was part of the uniform worn by the Kaiser's elite cavalry regiment, the Garde du Corps, and the Garde-Kürrassier-Regiment. The helmet is referred to as a pickelhaube because when it was worn in the field, the eagle was removed and replaced with a spike. The eagle was worn on parade and whenever full dress was required. The first Prussian monarch, King Frederick I, introduced the Garde du Corps, but they were later disbanded by his successor only to be revived by Frederick the Great in 1740. The regiment became the personal royal bodyguard of the King of Prussia and later the Kaiser. During the First World War, the Garde du Corps served in Belgium, Poland, Latvia and the Ukraine.

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.