STRANGE HELMET FOR ID please

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Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Hi
My guess is its a hobbyist's or re-enactor's piece.

You may well be right Colin , however to be a re enactors piece it would have to represent something that actually existed once .. so my question would be , what is it meant to be ?
Although not easy to see from my pics, it really does have a feeling of age. If I had to guess I would think it was a late Victorian Gothic revival decorative piece... but I wondered first if it could possibly be some sort of ethnic helmet .