Helmet of a French officer of the Sapeur-Pompier units, 1830

An original and extremely rare helmet from the period of the July monarchy in France in excellent condition. In 1810, Napoleon Bonaparte, dissatisfied with the low efficiency of the civil fire service (Garde Pompier), issued a decree transferring the fire extinguishing function to the sapper battalions of his Guard and regular troops. From this moment, the term Sapeur-Pompier (literally, the sapper-fire service) originates. In fact, Sapeur-Pompier were full-fledged armed units, whose functions included extinguishing fires and carrying out engineering and sapping work during combat operations. It was only in 1925 that Sapeur-Pompier lost the status of a military formation and transferred from the Armed Forces to The French Interior Ministry as a civil fire service. An absolute rarity, it is no longer found on the Russian market at the moment. Guarantee of authenticity.