Tmattimore,

Thanks for your perspective from the shoemaker's end. It's insightful...

In the end, I settled on a Spanish bespoke company, and all their boots are handmade. I sent them my actual foot measurements (length and width) which, as I mentioned, I accomplished by putting my feet between two bricks (making sure they were square) and measuring the length with a tape measure. We'll see what happens. The boots weren't cheap, but not too bad either. €175 plus shipping.

In the mean time, if I need any more footwear, I'll just have to pay close attention to the sizing system they have up on their website, and perhaps send an e-mail or two to confirm things before actually going ahead and ordering from the site.