DESCRIPTION
As we all know there are two basic Holy Grails in all of German helmet collecting which are the rare M40 Quist double decal SS helmet followed closely by the M35 Waffen SS double decal helmet. For reasons lost to history in the early part of 1940 the Quist factory in the city of Esslinger, Germany on perhaps only a few production lines continued to add the red party shield to the left side of the helmet. This was actually officially eliminated at the beginning of 1940 by decree of German High Command who no longer wanted bright red decals or shiny helmets for front line combat soldiers. So for a very short while (perhaps even representing only one or a few employees as the Quist factory) the red party shield was added to the newly formulated dark gray textured finished M40 helmets while the vast majority of all other SS helmets would have had only the one decal applied.
These things exist, they are uber rare but they are out there and represent the pinnacle of any collectors helmet array. All of these are the early- mid war M40 side marked Quist helmets representing issue in early 1940 as later models featured the Q66 stamping in the center of the rear skirt.
This helmet is the former and was restored using a large M40 Q66 shell made by the Quist factory in Esslinger, Germany. The outside dark enamel feld grau (field gray) with a textured finish and the same color that the Germans would have used.
For this particular restoration I used a textbook Quist SS decal and matching party shield which I aged down a little bit to blend in with the outside paint. The SS decal used exclusively by the Quist factory is somewhat unique among SS decals and is unlike the ET, EF, and SE versions as the left rune is located slightly below the break point in the outer black shield border line unlike the other makers where it is basically even.
The inside liner system is ORIGINAL and a mid-war steel rounded chinstrap bale with leather stamped 59 and an historically accurate steel buckle chinstrap dated 1941 and a high quality reproduction. Due to the fact that the liner is the real deal and a left over from a post war painted helmet I was restoring the price is a little more because of the added originality. One of the leather tongues is stamped "59" in the large font you normally see with early produced 1940 helmet liners.
The shell I used is actually tough to find these days especially in it's current gem mint condition as everyone and their grandma wants an M40 Quist shell and still more collectors want it in a wearable large size 66.
$750
Please call, text or email me if interested.
Tel/Text: 1-438-502-5052
Email Us: helmetsofwar@gmail.com
HELMETS OF WAR INC.
PO Box 555
Champlain, NY 12919-0555
Shipping to Anywhere USA/Canada: $22 with full tracking numbers.
Shipping to Europe/UK: $65 with full tracking numbers.
Shipping to Australia/New Zealand: $75 with full tracking numbers.
GERMAN HELMET FACTORY PRODUCTION CODES
(Every original German helmet produced from 1935 to 45 had two factory stampings punched into the side and rear or both in the rear. The alpha numeric number refers to the factory location and the inside metric circumference in centimeters. The rear lot number refers to the production run and was used as a quality control measure. The font styles used at each factory were slightly different but highly consistent throughout the war and so fakes or reproductions will either not have these numbers at all or they will use the wrong font style or letter spacing and so are easily identified as post war made.)
(FS or EF)-Emaillierwerke AG, Fulda, Germany
(ET or ckl)-Eisenhuttenwerke, Thale, Germany
(Q)-Quist, Esslingen, Germany
(NS)-Vereinigte Deutsche Nikelwerke, Schwerte, Germany
(SE or hkp)-Sachsische Emaillier u. Stanzwerke, Lauter, Germany
