Historic Mark V Made On D-Day, “Widow Maker” USN Helmet, Yokohama Gas Helmet, Joe Savoie Mixed Gas helmet, Rat Hat, rare French Petit helmet, 1916 Morse, plus many more rare copper & brass diving helmets headline the Summer 2021 Diving Into History auction.
Ever thought about owning an authentic piece of diving history? Your chance to bid and purchase some of the most historic diving helmets, double hose regulators, knives, and other underwater memorabilia is coming up on Saturday, July 17th.
The world’s largest dealer of authentic diving helmets, Nation’s Attic Inc., will be conducting the online-only auction on LiveAuctioneers.com and Invaluable.com. The sale starts at 10 am CST, with preview and pre-bidding available now.
The first half of the sale features vintage scuba gear from the 1940s into the 1970s. Some notable items include one of the first US Divers regulators from 1950, an early Fenjohn camera housing, unusual vintage dive knives, other rare double hose regulators from Voit, Northill, Sportsways, DACOR, and even a New England Divers privately labeled example!
The middle of the sale has an assortment of maritime artifacts. Of note are an 1896 Colombian Gun Boat ships plaque, ships telegraphs, binnacles, submarine gauges, a brass hull plaque from the USS Sonoma, and other unique instruments.
The second half of the sale focuses on the classic military and commercial hard hats of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Historically and visually impressive diving helmets include a US Navy Mark V helium helmet nicknamed “The Widow Maker,” a mixed gas helmet made by Yokohama in Japan, multiple historic US Navy Mark V helmets, one being made on D-Day June 6th, 1944. Other copper and brass helmets from Germany, Japan, Korea, Russia and a rare French helmet made by Charles Petit in Paris round out the classics. Related early diving equipment such as large manual air pumps, dive dresses, boots, knives, and military rebreathers can all be had.
More modern and increasingly valuable diving helmets made by Joe Savoie, Bob Ratcliffe (Rat Hat), General Aquadyne, Advanced Diving Equipment, Interspace Systems are selling. A historically significant Kirby Morgan KMCSH-6 designed for use on Sea Lab in the 1960s and featured on the cover of Life magazine is undoubtedly worthy of any museum or fine collection in the world!
Posters, catalogs, photos, books, manuals, patches, decals, id plates, historic dive journals, schematics, and even decades of Skin Diver magazines from the 1960s to the 1980s are part of the ephemera offered.
Nation’s Attic Inc. has been in business for 16 years and is the largest dealer of authentic diving helmets globally. Located in Wichita, Kansas in the United States their unlikely location for such items has not hindered them from sending these pieces of diving history to all parts of the world. Discovering antique diving helmets in the most unlikely places and finding new homes for them is Nation’s Attic passion & specialty!
