Museum Quality Replica French Napoleonic “Bell-Top” Shako Helmet with Chasseurs on Horse of the Young Guard Eagle & White Cord New Made Items

New Made Museum Quality Replica Item. Only One Available. A shako is a tall, cylindrical military cap, usually with a visor, and sometimes tapered at the top. It is usually adorned with an ornamental plate or badge on the front, metallic or otherwise; and often has a feather, plume (see hackle) or pom pom attached at the top.

This Bell-Top Shako is a wonderful representation of the type war by the French military during the Napoleonic wars. The front plate is for the Chasseurs on Horse of the Young Guard, officially known in 1815 as the 2nd Regiment of Chasseurs on Horse of the Imperial Guard. This regiment only existed from 1813-1815, being dissolved with the disbandment of the Corps after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo.

The cockade is a French National cockade in white, red, and blue. The pom-pom is a full red example & the white cord is very ornamental and hangs from a hook on the left and right sides of the helmet, which are attached by stars. There is a buckle on the back of the helmet to tighten it to the wearer’s head. There is a full liner on the interior that wraps around the head. The chinscales have a leather string that wrap around the top of the cockade. These are all approximately 60cm or 7 1/2 US sized.

This is a tremendous museum quality replica, ready for further research and display.

The word shako originated from the Hungarian name csákó for the peak, which Hungarian border soldiers (Grenz-Infanterie) added around 1790 to their previously visorless stovepipe-style hats. Originally these hats were part of the clothing commonly worn by shepherds, before being added to the uniform of the Hungarian hussar in the early 18th century. Other spellings include chako, czako, sjako, schako, schakot and tschako.

From 1800 on, the shako became a common military headdress worn by the majority of regiments in the armies of Europe and the Americas. Replacing in most instances the light bicorne, the shako was initially considered an improvement. Made of heavy felt and leather, it retained its shape and provided some protection for the soldier’s skull, while its visor shaded his eyes. It retained this preeminence until the mid-19th century, when spiked helmets began to appear in the army of Prussia, which influenced armies of the various German states; and the more practical kepi replaced it for all but
parade wear in the French Army. The Imperial Russian Army substituted a spiked helmet for the shako in 1844–45 but returned to the latter headdress in 1855, before adopting a form of kepi in 1864. Following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, military fashions changed and cloth or leather helmets based on the German headdress began to supersede the shako in many armies.

The bell-top shako was a large and elaborate type which became popular in the 1820s and 1830s when there was little warfare between the major European powers and practicality on the battlefield became less important than appearance on the parade ground. It featured a crown that clearly flared outwards towards the top, giving a distinctive bell shape, and was often adorned with decorative cords and plumes. British troops were accoutered with the bell-top shako from 1829 to 1844. US troops followed that example by adopting the “yeoman” crown cap in 1813 for artillery and rifle regiments, followed by the bell crown cap (with concave sides) from 1821. The US shakos changed again from 1832 to 1851, when a leather-made “cap” for infantry and artillery was introduced, resembling the former “yeoman” crown cap. Dragoons were issued with a cap model, whose crown was smaller than the cap’s base. All those models were dropped in between 1851 and 1854, in favor of a cloth made shako of smaller size and swung shape, similar to the British “Albert” shako.