GERMAN WWI 1ST GUARD REGIMENT OF FOOT OFFICERS MITRE CAP.

A fabulous condition mitre cap worn by an officer in the Grenadier Company of the 1st Guard Regiment of Foot. Huge front plate, good fine deep strike, the scroll of the front plate reads ‘Semper Talis’, which is the correct scroll for the Grenadier Company, excellent colour, the red wool body all complete with one moth nip just behind the very tip of the mitre in . No damage to the quite delicate framework of the helmet at the rear, these helmets can be susceptible to damage in this area. All of the flaming grenade impressions proud to the rear framework. Officers silver lace running on two sides and down the centre rear seam of the wool cloth body, with its clip over white metal flat chin scales and its officer heavy bullion twisted weave cockade. To the interior the officers mid tan leather liner with scalloped edge still all intact. Although the Guard Regiment of Foot can trace its ancestry back to 1688, this style of mitre cap was introduced for full dress only in February 1894 and was based on the traditional pointed headdress of Fredrick the Great period, known as the Grenadier or Fusilier cap or mitre. They are a delicate helmet and many helmets that appear on the market are damaged because of the fragility and thinness of the metalwork or badly mothed cloth sections either individually damaged in that way or both. This example is exceptional.

Code: 81389