Roman helmet decoration

[Ebusitanus]

Salve,
I was having a very nice debate with a frater of mine about decorated roman helmets and would like to prey the bright mind here a bit.
We find throughout roman helmet history those that were heavily decorated, those a bit decorated and those that were bare and "generic".

Say, per example, the Montefortino. Is there a chance that the nice decorations specially the first models show, are fabric based or could have been field modifications through the legion´s armourer.
I say this because I find that given the legionary custom to end up looking "smart" through better Gladius scabbards, pugiones, cingulum plates, etc, etc..Could the helmet have received this same treatment by the owning trooper? I´m not talking about punching a name in but rather the nice ring decorations around the brim. Would those field enhacements be fairly common? Would a hired armour fabrica do thousands of decorated helmets for newly raised legion?

Thanks in advance

[Natuspardo]

A late example:
The magnificent Spangenhelmets of Baldenheim type (5th/6th century) were all produced in fabricae, one group in the west, the other in the east. They probably were presents to higher officers. Some 32 were found, thought to represent some 1000 helmet wearers at a time.
Barbaricarii in the fabricae had to produce (that is: decorate normal ones with gold and such) each six helmets per month respectively.
Source:
Kurt Böhner: Die frühmittelalterlichen Spangenhelme und die nordischen Helme der Vendelzeit, in RGZM 41,2 (1994).

[Dan Diffendale]

Say, per example, the Montefortino. Is there a chance that the nice decorations specially the first models show, are fabric based or could have been field modifications through the legion's armourer.... Could the helmet have received this same treatment by the owning trooper? I´m not talking about punching a name in but rather the nice ring decorations around the brim. Would those field enhancements be fairly common? Would a hired armour fabrica do thousands of decorated helmets for newly raised legion?

Re: the early, well-decorated Montefortino-type helmets (those with the corded rim and the gathered top-knob), this seems to be the earliest subclass, with later types losing this decoration. The decoration is integral, not added later in the life of the helmet. See Coarelli 1976, "Un elmo con iscrizione latina arcaica al museo di Cremona," in Mélanges Heurgon, I, Roma, pp. 157-179. I'll have to double-check it when I get home, so watch this space...

[Celer]

Salve,

There is the fine example of the Sisak Gallic Centurion's helmet that had been silvered three times by its owner, including re-punched decoration.

Vale,

Celer.