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Breed of the Issue - Helmet
Helmet- Page 49 - Purebred PIGEON
upper face, and mostly crested.
Also in Switserland it seems,
according to Mr. Wendell Levi
and a picture from 1963, the
Helmet bred as Hamburger type
with a dark upper face. But how
the Helmets are bred in different
types in different countries, the
countries wisdom, the countries
honour – we are proud of our
original Dutch Helmet pigeons,
since 1686.
The Helmet has always
been popular in Holland, of
which the first standard descrip-
tion was issued in 1927, com-
posed by at that time specialists and leaders: Spruyt, Logman,
Goese, Schneider and Linnebank.
Before this, they were bred without a standard descrip-
tion, but the pigeon lovers still had stable guidelines. Very well
known was the great collection of Helmets in black, red and
yellow of breeder Tuyt in Oegstgeest in 1918. Many will also re-
member the entries of Helmets in the nineteen thirties of breeder
Gouverne from Heerlen, the breeder who attended many shows.
The Second World War gave a devastating blow to the
Dutch Helmets and after the war the quality of the surviding
Helmets was much worse than before. The only surviving
Helmets in the collection of Spruyt in Gouda, who saved many
rare Dutch traditional pigeon breeds under the allowance of the
Germans during the war, came from Mr. P. de Vries from Eind-
hoven. They were black and red. With the hiders in Amsterdam,
there were still yellow and blue ones.
There was a Helmet association founded with Mr. De Vries
as chairman, Leemhuis as secretary and Kreuger as treasurer. It
was registered at the Board of Directors and the NBS ( Neth-
erlands Fancy Pigeon Association). In 1947 the booklet “De
Nederlandse Helmduif” was published. Unfortunately the club
did not have a long existence. When we remember 1950, the
Helmets have been improved enormously. Especially in face
and eye rings. The earlier exposed birds, were not really middle
faced tumblers anymore, because they had too short faces and
without exception almost red coloured eye rims.
During a visit to the chairman of the Kölner Tümmlerv-
erein, Mr. Alex Richarta in Cologne, we found an enormous
collection of Cologne Tumblers and Helmets with long faces
and pale eye rims. Mouth-wateringly nice. Here was our chance
to improve the Dutch Helmets. We needed fresh blood. The
Hamburger could not be used due to the short face and the Dan-
ish would make the eye rims of our Helmets even more red. The
Cologne Helmet originally from imports from Holland turned
out to be the perfect model. What could improve from Holland
to Cologne, could improve the way back also.
We have personally brought several Cologne Helmets in
exchange of Old Dutch Tumblers, which were most welcome to
recover the large foot feath-
ered Cologne Tummler. It is
succesfuly achieved by our
breeders to use the Cologne
Helmets to rebuild a few
strains of Dutch Helmets, even
for 100%. Nobody will resent
it if we mention two names
who have made a most special
service in this: Mr. A. de Boer
uit Eindhoven, and Mr. A. van
Feggelen from Amsterdam.
The Cologne type is slightly
slimmer and with falling back
line. Our Dutch birds show
without exception, the accord-
ing to our standard required, horizontaly carried body with a full
brest and not too long back part, by which they completely dis-
tinguish themselves from the Cologne Helmets. That’s why our
breeders and judges should pay special attention to this point.
Also the Cologne head is different from the Dutch Helmet,
because the Cologne head should be bred more flat of the skull,
although the Dutch Helmet should have more forehead and more
round proportion above the eyes.
In short, our Dutch Helmets have a their own distinct type
and cannot be mixed with the present day Cologne Helmet Tum-
bler, as the Cologne Tumbler cannot be mixed with the Dutch
Highflyer.
There has been a time when the Helmet and Schoorsteen-
vegers (Chimney sweeps) would be classified as varieties of the
Dutch Highflyers. Although this is the case in other countries,
it is not possible in Holland. Indeed the Hamburger Helmet is
a variety on the Cologne Tumbler. Also the Danisch Helmet is
a drawing variant on the Danish Tumbler. Our Dutch Helmet,
however, has always been a different breed with much older
papers that the Dutch Highflyer and will always be its an own
breed with its distinct own proportions.
It is also one of the breeds, of which to the starter looks
simple, but for breeding the true show bird, one should have
a lot of experience. The correct breeding of the Helmet will
always be a difficult point and even straight continuation is
more difficult to breed than the one with moustaches, which are
very easy to make. Head and tail may not differ from color. The
beak may not be colored grey, and we are only recently happy
that with the black type that has the nearly colorless beak – how
difficult this is.
Then the remaining difficulties are the eye rims. They
should be fine and pale and this is not easy to achieve for the
breeder. And then we don’t talk about the type, although that is
number one during the judging.
The path of the Helmet breeder is really full with pitfalls
and traps and that’s why one should see the breeding of good
Helmets as a great achievement.
Written by Moezelaar. Translated by Jan de Wit 2024•