65 - Prussian helmet eagle “La Belle Alliance”, probably Infantry Regiment No. 87, drum holder, sash

Prussian helmet eagle “La Belle Alliance”, probably Infantry Regiment No. 87, drum holder, sash Metal, leather and textile, three pieces: 1) Helmet plate, Prussian line eagle for the Pickelhaube, gold-coloured, embossed, eagle with raised wings and crowned head, breast shield with cipher “FR”, motto band “MIT GOTT FÜR KOENIG UND VATERLAND”, bandeau “LA BELLE ALLIANCE” lying across in front of the wings, probably for the 1st Nassau Infantry Regiment No. 87, eagle without talons, sceptre and orb, lower tail not preserved. 2) Drum holder, also drum hook, brass-coloured eagle with spread wings on a wrapped rod, below it two hooks, on a metal bracket with wide leather loop and rivet. 3) Parade sash, narrow gold-coloured woven band with two darker longitudinal stripes, at the end two strands with tassel heads in net pattern and long fringes, reverse of light twill tape with sewn-on fabric label, stamped in violet “63” over “10”. Please inspect. The Prussian line eagle with cipher and motto served as the helmet plate of the Pickelhaube in the infantry and the artillery regiments. Scrolls with battle names from the Napoleonic Wars were worn above the eagle as a distinction; for the two Nassau regiments No. 87 and No. 88 “La Belle Alliance” appeared on the line eagle of the Pickelhaube, and from 1897 Regiment No. 88 additionally bore the bandeaus “Mesa de Ibor” and “Medellin”. La Belle Alliance is an inn south of Brussels near which Blücher and Wellington met on the evening of 18 June 1815 after the battle; Blücher proposed naming the battle after this place, and in Berlin the Rondell was named Belle-Alliance-Platz as early as 1815. The drum holder, also called drum shears, was attached to the belt with a loop and was part of the equipment of the regimental musicians in the Imperial era.