This Galluba & Hofmann porcelain tulip boot is the unusual large size, possibly the factory's earliest shoe mold (c. 1891). It is clear glazed with a cobalt wash front panel (the visual equivalent to pottery "flow blue") and has ornate C-scrolls and gild detail. This boot would have served as the "formoff" model for the medium boot 1287. The absence of a mold number, the lack of mold modifications, and the coloring all support a very early date of manufacture. This mold by convention should be 1686 thus precedes the known mold sizes. (Wojtkowski pg144R1 and Table 2). The boot has large in-mold tulips at vamp bottom and at the sides of the opening. Front of the boot is gently keeled. Condition report: gild is gently to moderately rubbed. Heel has flaws of manufacture which only show on display as a small notch in back view. The heel apparently cracked in the kiln and then re-fused in the high heat of the furnace (clear porcelain "ring"). Factory overglaze is present on heel (see closeups). Size is 5.5 x 5.1, 4.9 oz.   Item #1235, Price $55.