Julip Identification

Footnotes: On Mouth Letters

Letter "d", 1974

Correctly dating a Julip Original can be a difficult task. Physical characteristics can be inconsistent between models and can change through age, damage, or owner-intervention.

Vintage Julips from the '70s and '80s have one advantage earlier and later models do not - mouth letters. Starting in 1971 with A the majority of vintage models left the Julip workshop with a (often) lower-case letter written in their mouth indicating the year of production.

It can be notoriously hard to read mouth letters as it was difficult enough in the first place for the artist to write legibly in the horses' mouths, much less, in later years, to open an aged horse's mouth without causing damage or reading a letter blurred by time.

Letter "c", 1973

Other markings which are found on vintage models have less concrete explanations. It is thought that the letter R found on the bottom of a hoof on some models indicates they were rejected for some reason or another - perhaps due to flaws or general customer dissatisfaction. Some people think an S plus another letter indicates a special order and the year it was made, but there are many mouth-letter era special orders without this marking.

The last known number is thought to be T in 1990. In the latter years the practise of mouth lettering had become irregular, so some models from the mouth-letter period may not be marked, even though they fall within the proper era.