.

Oh Hasse, that is a fine grouping indeed and they could not have found a better home - well done Sir! But you did not mention what the serial number of the brevet is. While you are correct that the records have long since been lost you could still get a feel for when the badge may have been issued based on its 'B' series number on the reverse. Philippe Bartlett notes in his book, "Les Insignes de l'Aéronautique Militaire Française jusqu'en 1918", that a total of 17,491 pilots were brevetted by the French by the end of 1918. He further breaks this number down by years as follows: 134 in 1914, 1,484 in 1915, 2,698 in 1916, 5,609 in 1917, and 6,909 in 1918, (with an additional 657 apparently having been licensed before the war). Now since the Pillet-style official badge as you have there was issued from November 1916 onward, and if we assume that it was issued retroactively to pilots brevetted before that date, the first 4,900 or so would have been handed out at the end of 1916, with another 5,600+ in 1917 and a further 6,900+ in 1918. Keep in mind that pilots sometimes lost their badges and had to request replacements, and also keep in mind that pilots who were no longer fit to fly due to injuries or health issues were required to turn their badges back in, (though it's doubtful this happened very often if indeed at all). To add yet another element of uncertainty to the mix the badges were apparently sent out in random batches to the dozen or so flight schools across France, and there is no evidence once the schools had them that they were handed out in numerical order, (though it's likely that they were given the military mindset for organization). None-the-less, the consensus among modern day collectors of these badges is that lower numbers tend to indicate an early-war issue while higher numbers up to around 17,500 to 18,000 likely indicate a late-war issue. Badge numbers higher than about 18,000 were most probably issued after the war to newly brevetted pilots, with a possible handful being issued as replacements to Great War pilots who lost theirs at some point.

Again Hasse, that group is a superb addition to your collection, and I am just a tad green about it.

.