Carter's Mountain Violet

[ToasterPastry]

Carter’s Mountain Violet

 

[Preface: At Ann's request, I have reformatted my two reviews of Noodler's Tulip Purple and Mountain Violet-- which I believe were identical inks, rebottled, reformulated and remarketed--into two separate reviews. My original review of these inks was moved to Ink Comparisons section of this bulletin board. Meanwhile, I collected and corrected a bit more data that was not present in my original review. I plan to review about 4 or 5 Carter's inks, once the largest ink manufacturer in the world. They are now no longer producing ink for pens since Avery-Dennison's purchase in 1975. By this time Carter's had diversified into more profitable ventures, like the Marks-A-Lot felt-tip markers, mucilage, and printer's inks. Fountain pen inks, much like fountain pens themselves, were a novelty that saw little use. Carter's inks are available on the vintage/collectable market. In most cases the bottles are empty. Sometimes the ink has dried to powder and can be reconstituted. Rarely, full bottles turn up.]

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carter_violet7.jpg

 

 

Introduction

 

For me, there has always been a small connection between Noodler’s and Carter’s ink companies, largely because both companies are Boston-based. Noodler’s has claimed that their famous Baystate Blue was based upon a Boston ink company’s formula. Although there was more than one Boston-based ink manufacturer, I have always wondered if it was some creation by Carter’s, perhaps Atlantic Blue or American Blue. Nonetheless, this connection between the two companies became more obvious the other day, when I pulled out a document written with Carter’s Mountain Violet ink. The writing seemed to glow under the fluorescent lighting, that same effect seen with Baystate Blue.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_cubes_1937.jpg

 

Carter's cubes, originally produced in 1934, contained multiple colors, including their "Sunset" colored-ink series, featuring a rising-sun label. This label was later replaced by a ship-at-sunset label in 1937, as shown in this advertisement. Washable inks featured an aquarium theme, while permanent inks featured flying geese.

 

Mountain Violet (1945?) was preceded by Tulip Purple (1943) and previously by Sunset Violet (1934), when Carter's began introducing colored inks in the "Sunset" series. These inks, from my perspective, appear to be exactly the same color, just repackaged, renamed and reformulated. Carter’s ceased operations as an ink company, selling their business to Avery-Dennsion in 1975. Although some products, such as stamp pads still bear the Carter’s name, fountain pen ink is no longer produced.

 

After the purchase, Dennison destroyed all 100-years of Carter’s meticulous ink research, something that probably made good business sense at the time, but seems a crime to those of us in the collector/hoarder business.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Kitties_Carters_ink.jpg

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/staehle_carterink_aw23apr44-1.jpg

Carter's kittens were introduced in 1943. This artwork by Albert Staehle. These two ads appeared in Life Magazine in 1943 and 1944 respectively. The kitten mascot featured prominently in ads for Carter's up until the late 1950s.

 

 

Cost: The ink originally sold for 10¢ for a 2 ounce bottle. Typically these bottles now sell from $4 to $25, depending upon the condition of the box container.

 

Characteristics: Water-based.

 

Pen: Several vintage fountain pens with flexible nibs were used to demonstrate this ink. I would not recommend using any pen with an ink window, as the purple can stain.

 

Background: I believe that both Tulip Purple, Mountain Violet, and Sunset Violet are identical colors, with slight changes and improvement in formulation. Tulip Purple (No. 1746) preceded Mountain Violet (No. 46) by about 5 years. Tulip Purple was contained in a ribbed oval 2-1/2 ounce bottle, whereas Mountain Violet was contained in a 2-ounce cube. The cubes were designed to be inserted mouth-downward into Carter's ink-stand. When the 1945 Stylewriter ink-stands appeared, Carter tried to accommodate their ink containers to all fit the new design. Thus, the oval bottles were discontinued, and the cubes remained. See figure below.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_stylewriter_desk_set.jpg

Carter's initially introduced the ink stand in the late 1930s, designed to hold the cube-shaped bottle at the side of the pen. By 1940, Carter's created a one-way valve in the mouth of the ink-bottle opening, allowing the bottle to be inserted upside down into the stand, creating an ink well. The 1945 Stylewriter, shown here, placed a cover over the ink bottle.

 

Lubricity: Adequate. The pen glides across the paper.

 

Drying time: Very fast for a vintage ink: 5 to 10 seconds.

 

Shading: Some. It’s a relative homogeneous and saturated ink for a vintage product.

 

Bleedthough: On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst, I would rate this as a 1 to 2. It will bleed through some papers. Though, in general, I have seen modern inks bleed more heavily, and vintage iron gallic inks barely bleed at all.

 

Feathering: 1/5; it dries quickly. There is some feathering with very flexible pens. But for general use, there is none.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_purple_remastered_3.jpg

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carter_violet4.jpg

 

Images of Tulip Purple compared to Mountain Violet and modern inks. These images were scanned and photographed.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_purple_remastered_4.jpg

 

Some will ask, "Why go way out of my way to find a vintage ink?" The answer is intuitively obvious in this scan. Notice how the two modern (middle) inks feather terribly when applied liberally with flexible nibs. This was no coincidence. Despite saturating the page with Tulip Purple, hardly any feathering, if at all, is seen. The same applies to Mountain Violet (reviewed separately).

 

Color: The color of this ink is very intense, reminiscent of Baystate Blue or Baystate Concord Grape. These inks fluoresce in fluorescent lighting. I do not have Concord Grape to compare, but the Carter’s inks appear less red. It’s a color that was common in the banking industry at the turn of the 20th century. Also seen with other ink brands. But I now recognize it as the purple color that’s printed on Sunkist oranges.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_purple_remastered_1.jpg

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_purple_remastered_2.jpg

 

Waterproof: These inks are resistant to water. But can be removed with detergents and bleach (not as easily as I was expecting).

 

Conclusion: Carter’s Mountain Violet is an intensely brilliant purple ink produced around 1945 to 1950. Like Tulip Purple, Mountain Violet is a similar color but probably improved formulation to improve flow and reduce drying time. The color seems to glow under fluorescent lighting. The color is a blue-violet common in the banking industry in the early 20th century, or most notably the violet ink stamp on a Sunkist orange. This ink exhibits little feathering or bleeding as compared to modern inks, and behaves remarkably well. Unfortunately, a filled-bottle of this ink is very difficult to find on the vintage market. But dried contents can be reconstituted.

[The Royal Pen]

Very beautiful inks! I always have wondered why Carter stopped. Thank you for posting this! It is beautiful, and I love your penmanship too!

[jniforat]

where can i find this stuff?

[philm]

Fantastic, thorough review W. Thank you very much.

 

Phil

[carlosjaviercontreras]

Thank you Sir, for such a wonderful review. I didn't know that saturated inks like those Carter's you described existed before Parker Penman. Wow!, with those fine inks, how did we get cornered with Parker Quink?

 

Oh, I see, they stopped production in 1975.

Edited December 4, 2010 by carlosjaviercontreras

[MicheleB]

Very informative. Thanks for the educational review.

[ToasterPastry]

Update:

 

I was privileged to receive a sample of Noodler's Baystate Concord Grape from FPN member opus7600. I was in a sense comparing the color of Carter's Mountain Violet and it's relative Carter's Tulip Purple to this Noodler's ink without actually seeing a sample of Concord Grape.

 

I received a sample and here is the result. Concord Grape is slightly redder than Carter's MV & TP, however it doesn't compare to the intensity of the two Carter's inks. You read it correctly: Concord Grape is much LESS intense than the two Carter's purple inks. I am so surprised by the finding, I'm sending a small sample of it to opus7600 to confirm my results. Unfortunately, the ink-intensity doesn't scan or photograph well for visual confirmation.

 

After writing the review I dipped one of my two pens into a glass jar filled with water to clean the Carter's ink off the pen. The pen was thoroughly flushed. But the purple-colored water remained in the jar for a few days. When I went to empty the jar, the bottom of the jar was stained purple. Meanwhile, I actually used a bleach solution to clean the stained ink-window of a pen that I had filled with Carter's Mountain Violet. The bleach cleaned most of it, but couldn't remove the stain completely. Needless to say, this ink stains everything.

[Bo Bo Olson]

As a child in the mid-late '50-60's, I never remember seeing Carter inks, only Parker, Sheaffer and the 1/3d cheaper Pelikan 4001 inks.

Pelikan was not a 'name of pens' in the US then, just as as good and cheaper than Parker or Sheaffer ink.

In fact the first Pelikan pens I saw in Germany in 1964, I thought ugly.

[fireant]

Thank you for this review. My boyfriend collects the bottles and loves the labels on the Carter's Inks.

 

I've wondered if the Mountain Violet and Tulip Purple were the same ink renamed and rebranded but it's clear from your review that they are different.

 

Thank you so much for such a great review.

 

Bo Bo I feel your pain-I lived in Germany in the 90s and I am kicking myself for not buying more fountain pens/vintage pens.

[lapis]

Thanks for this review (which I have, yes, now discovered amost 6 years later). I didn't know that Noodler's Tulip Purple may have been a re-launch of it.

 

Mike

[Tweel]

I believe that's a typo, and he meant to write that "Carter's Tulip Purple and Mountain Violet" seem identical.

[lapis]

Hmm, that might solve my problem and it could be the reason why I couldn't find "Noodler's Tulip Purple" anywhere. Lots of N's purples but not this one (! and/or ?).

 

Mike

[carlos.q]

So the secret to a water resistant, fast drying, saturated and shading violet ink with little to no feathering or bleedthrough was lost when "Dennison destroyed all 100-years of Carter’s meticulous ink research"?

 

Oh, the horror!