Redskins spear helmet

[captainhaddock]

Any thoughts about the Redskins spear helmet currently in AMI's auction? It looks like the bottom white pieces of the side feather decals have been stuck on the backs of the spears, and there is a strange hole through the top, almost like it was pre-drilled for a lamp. Any thoughts?

[JDubbs73]

Hey Mike, what'd you finally decide? Looked like a beauty, bidding really ran there at the end.

[captainhaddock]

I decided not to bid after consulting with a few vintage Skins collectors and looking through all of the 1965-1969 photos I could find. None of us could find any evidence of the stickers ever being applied that way to a game helmet, nor any explanation for the top center hole. Maybe the equipment staff stickered the helmet that way to identify it as a spare from a distance, and that spare was given as a gift to the security guy? Tough to say, so I passed.

Does anybody have a photo of that sticker style, with the bottom feather pieces not placed on the helmet sides, but instead placed on the backs of the spears themselves? I'd love to see it, and that would be a fun variant. The Skins of that era were certainly no strangers to variants. As we collectors of vintage material need to remember, the Kelly Millers and Tommy McVeans of the world were mostly concerned (particularly in the preseason) with getting players on the field -- not with creating consistent exemplars for future generations of uniform enthusiasts.