There is evidence of Bantams with feathered feet from around 1600 (Ulisse Aldrovandi, Italy) and have been mentioned in historical literature throughout the centuries to the present day. The three main Countries to play a part in developing these feather footed birds into an actual breed are Great Britain (Booted Bantam), Germany (Federfubige Zwerg) and The Netherlands (Sabelpoot). The Booted Bantam lost favour with British breeders and remains rare in this country. However, the Germans and the Dutch have been the main force behind the Booteds' breeding and thanks to them we now have Booteds in many colours.
The Black and White Booteds have always been seen as of British origin, even nowadays the Blacks and Whites are smaller and more compact in build, even in Germany and The Netherlands.

Young Booted Bantams will often look taller and slimmer than older birds and I feel its not until after their first moult that they look "right". Be careful of cross breeds, the blacks and whites do look similar to the Barbu d'Uccle and are often bred together indiscriminately. The Barbu d'Uccles have thicker neck feathering with a very pronounced boule.

Booted Bantam Standard

Origin: Europe

Classification: True Bantam, Rare Breed

Egg colour: Tinted

General Characteristics

Male

Carriage: Erect and strutting.

Type: Body short and compact. Full and prominent breast. Short back, furnished with long and abundant saddle feathers. Large, long wings, carried at the same angle as, and more or less resting on the vulture hocks. Large tail, full and upright; sickles a little longer than the main tail feathers and slightly curved. Coverts long, abundant and nicely curved.

Head: Skull small. Beak rather stout, of medium length. Eyes bright and prominent. Comb single, small, firm, perfectly straight and upright, well serrated. Face of fine texture, free from hairs. Ear - lobes small and flat, bright red. Wattles small, fine and well rounded.

Neck: Fairly short, but upright. Hackle feathering is full but straight, with no boule formation as seen on Barbu d'Uccles.

Legs and feet: Thighs powerful, well feathered with strongly developed vulture hocks, consisting of long rigid feathers which almost touch the ground. Fairly short shanks which are heavily furnished with long and rather stiff feathers on the outer sides. Toes, four, straight and well spread. The outer and middle toes being very heavily feathered.

Plumage: Long and abundant. For details on the colours please visit Booted Bantams.

Female
The general characteristics are similar to those of the male, allowing for the natural sexual differences.

Weights

Male 850g (30oz)

Female 750g (27oz)

Scale of Points

25 - Type

15 - Head

20 - Colour (of plumage 15, legs and beak 5)

15 - Leg and foot feathering

10 - Size

15 - Condition
___

100

Standard Colours:
Black
Male and female plumage: Black, as lustrous as possible.
In both sexes: Beak black or horn. Eyes dark red or very dark brown. Comb, face, wattles and ear lobes bright red. Legs and feet black.

Blue
Male plumage: Hackles, saddle, wing bow, back and tail dark slate blue. Remainder medium slate blue, each feather to show lacing of darker shade.
Female plumage: Medium slate blue with darker lacing throughout, except head and neck-dark slate blue.
In both sexes: Beak dark slate or horn. Eyes dark red or red brown. Legs and feet slate. Nails dark slate or horn.

Cuckoo
Male and female plumage: Uniformly cuckoo coloured, with transverse bands or dark bluish grey on light grey ground. Each feather must have at least three bands.
In both sexes: Eyes orange red. Legs, feet, beak and nails white, often spotted with bluish grey in young birds.

Lavender
Male and female plumage: This is a true breeding pale silvery blue, all the feathers being of one uniform shade.
In both sexes: Eyes orange red. Beack and nails slate blue, Legs and feet slate blue.

White
Male and female plumage: Pure snow white.
In both sexes: Beak white. Eyes red. Comb, face, wattles and earlobes bright red. Legs and feet white.

Black Mottled
Male and female plumage: All feathers black with metallic green lustre, regularly tipped with white tips, varying in size with the feather. Excessive white markings or uneven distribution to be avoided.
In both sexes: Eyes dark red, legs and feet slate blue or blackish. Beak and nails dark horn.

Buff Mottled
Male and female plumage: Golden buff with a round white spangle at the end of each feather in all parts except for the tail which is clear white.
In both sexes: Beak light blue, Eyes red. Comb, face, wattles and earlobes bright red. Legs and feet light blue.

Gold Millefleur
Male plumage: This is a very intricate and attractive colour scheme. Briefly, the head is orange red with white tips. Neck hackle black with golden shafts, and broadly bordered with orange red, each feather having a black end tipped with a white point. Back red, shading to orange towards the saddle hackle. Wing bows mahogany red each feather tipped with white. Wing bars russet red with lustrous green black black pea shaped spots at ends, finishing with silvery white triangular tips, the whole forming regular bars across the the wings. Primaries black with a thin edging of chamois on outside, the visible lower third of each secondary feather chamois, upper two thirds black. Remainder of wing a uniform chamois, each feather having at end a large pea shaped white spot on a black triangle , the tips spaced evenly to conform with shape and outline of wing. (note the reversal of the pattern markings from the normal arrangement.)
Tail feathers black with a metallic green lustre, having a fine edging or lacing of dark chamois, and terminating with a white triangle. Breast, foot feathering and remainder of plumage throughout of golden chamois ground colour, each feathering having a light chamois shaft and finished with a black pea shaped spot tipped with a white triangle.
Female plumage: Ground colour uniform golden chamois, each feather terminating with a black pea shape spot tipped with a white triangle. Tail feathers black, finely laced with chamois and with white tips. Wing markings as described for male, allowing for natural sexual differences.
In both sexes: Eyes orange red. Beak and nails slate blue,Legs and feet slate blue.

Lemon Millefleur
Markings and pattern as described for the Gold Millefleur, but with a delicate lemon gold ground colour.

Silver Millefleur
Markings and pattern as described for the Gold Millefleur, but with a pure silver white ground colour.

Porcelain
Male and female plumage: This is an extraordinarily delicate colour pattern.
Markings and patterns generally are as described for millefleur in both sexes, with the exception that ground colour is light straw and the pea shaped spots are pale blue tipped with white triangles. Pale blue is substituted for the black in both sexes.
In both sexes: Eyes orange red. Beak and nails slate blue. Legs and feet slate blue.

Other colours
Many other colours are found in Germany and The Netherlands. These include Barred, Birchen, Blue Millefleur, Blue Partridge, Blue-Buff Columbian, Buff, buff Columbian, Columbian, Creole, Gold Duckwing, Lavender Mottled, Partridge, Pile, Red, Red Mottled, and Silver Duckwing. (picture of Spangled Booteds, by Ludlow, 1894. From the book BANTAMS by W.F.Entwistle)