A risky helmet for a big price - L.G.R. 109

[Fritz]

Helmet for Fähnrich, L.G.R. 109

A collector colleague recently pointed out to me a very rare helmet. He also made clear that this type of helmet could be easily transformed in just a few steps to a full grade officer's helmet with a great leap in value. This is always a risk with this type of helmet, they are easily changed or converted by swapping a few parts around, often these parts are fake, as they are rare as such.
Shown is a helmet for a Fähnrich, obviously high quality private purchase almost the class of an officer. In their day, the objective was to transform the helmet into an officer's by a change of emblem etc., when the candidate received his officer's commission.

Großherzoglich Badisches Leibgrenadier-Regiment 109 (Karlsruhe)
The helmet differs from an officer's in following respects:
The spike base is fixed useing the Rundkopfschrauben as seen on other ranks' examples, gilded stars were worn by officers
The cockades are of other ranks' pattern
The emblem is in officers' quality with the exception of the attached star, which would be silver and enamels with gilded corner monograms for officers.
Otherwise in all details identical.
N.B.: Contrasting gilt chinscales and silver rosettes are the correct configuration, the liner is also typical of the officers' helmets.

A price has not been quoted for the helmet, but an officers' would be in the range of over 10.000