Carter's Blue-black

[ToasterPastry]

Carter’s Blue-black writing ink

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/56/CartersInkCo-Logo.svg/500px-CartersInkCo-Logo.svg.png

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_blueblack1.jpg

Carter's blue-black ink bottles from c. 1937 (two-ounce bottle), c. 1958 (small one-ounce bottle), and c. 1934 (large quart-sized bottle)

 

Introduction

 

Carter’s was a family business that begun in 1858 by William Carter, later joined by his cousin John P. Carter, and sales associated James P. Dinsmore. After the company operations were burned in a fire in 1872, John Carter and Dinsmore purchased the business and reorganized the company as Carter, Dinsmore and Company, also known as Carter and Dinsmore. Company operations had grown from its humble beginnings; and by 1884, Carter’s was the largest producer of writing ink in the world. In 1895, John Carter died in a drowning accident. With the previous retirement of Dinsmore, Carter’s death created an organizational upheaval. The company was incorporated as Carter’s Ink Company, with John Carter’s son, Richard as its company president. Carter’s operations continued to grow, producing typewriter ribbon, laundry inks, mucilage, and writing inks. Their headquarters were moved to the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge. In 1975 they sold their business operation to Dennison, now Avery-Dennison, although some products, such as stamp pads still bear the Carter’s name. Fountain pen ink is no longer made by Avery-Dennison. In fact, Dennison destroyed all of the research Carter’s had accumulated over the past 100 years.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_1921_ad.jpg

1921 advertisement for Carter’s ink

 

Blue-black ink can be traced back to 1861 when Carter’s added dye to its iron-gall ink, the first innovation of its kind. The dye adds color and resolution when the ink is first applied to the page. Without it, the ink appears pale and watery. The addition of ferrous components and acid (tannic, carbolic (phenol) and gallic) oxidizes the fluid application on the paper to create a permanent stain.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_blueblack2.jpg

Carter’s advertisement that appeared in 1957 for demi-bottles. The ad appears here.

 

 

Color and Character: Like other blue-black inks made using the iron-gall formula (i.e. Diamine Registrar’s, Lamy blue-black, Rohrer & Klingner blue-black, etc.) application of the ink produces a bright blue mark. In the case of the Carter’s ink, it’s a steely gray-blue that may be the result of fading. Over time, the application darkens, creating a permanent stain. In some inks, this application becomes black. With Carter’s ink, it retains the steely gray-blue color that becomes more permanent on the page. These inks are water resistant. The address on an envelope will not be erased in a rainstorm. The blue dye can be removed with water and detergent. The black stain requires more work to remove. Surprisingly, Carter’s Blue-black holds its color even after I’ve run half the page under the tap. Application of the ink is smooth, not dry or chalky. As with all iron-gall inks, there is no bleeding or feathering. Thus Carter’s blue-black is ideal for vintage pens with flexible nibs. There is adequate shading. Its only drawback, as with most other gallic blue-blacks is the drying time can take up to 20 to 30 seconds, making this ink difficult to work with without smearing.

 

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

 

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

Carter’s blue-black is waterproof. After allowing the ink to dry for 24 hours, I ran tap water over half the page for 30 seconds, and was unable to remove the ink from the page. The brown stain on the right side of the page is actually the wrinkled paper as it appears under the scanner.

 

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

Here is the same writing sample as above. This was photographed in the afternoon on a cloudy day. Although the page appears dark, the ink color appears more true than the scan above. The writing sample was written with the newer-vintage ink (1958); the swirls were drawn with the older vintage (1937).

 

Conclusion: Carter’s blue-black is a pleasant iron-gallic ink, based on a century-old formula, that writes smoothly, shades well, remains permanently on the page, doesn’t bleed or feather, but takes seemingly forever to dry. Carter’s was one of the first ink companies, if not the first, to add dye to iron-gall ink. I have two different vintage inks, one from 1937, the other from 1957. Both write with similarly.

Edited December 6, 2010 by ToasterPastry

[geoduc]

Thanks, Toaster Pastry.

 

I'm very much enjoying this review series - it's great to see some of the vintage inks. The history and old advertisements are a nice bonus.

[JEBennett]

The ephemera with these reviews is wonderful, as are the shots of the vintage bottles. There is a faint romance about old ink products that is simply intoxicating.

[corniche]

Greetings TP,

 

Thanks for running these reviews for the Classics- its interesting to see where we came from; I especially enjoy the historical information.

 

All the best,

 

Sean

[pen2paper]

Sincere Thanks TP..

Again, this reveiew has it all.. photo's, ephemera, historical backround, your handwriting, and the detailed ink review.

...

Who was the clod at Dennison that was responsible for a foolish error of such magnitude? "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" comes to mind.. recall you don't emoticons, or I'd surely use the hand on the hips gah-guy > here "_".

will there be more reviews? hope so!

 

 

 

[LedZepGirl]

Very nice. Over Christmas break I need to start hunting down some more vintage inks, as they find the most use in my collection. I've been looking for Carter's but haven't had any luck yet, although I couple of years ago I seen about six bottles in blue-black, blue, red and black with a lot of dry ink sediment. Right now I'm kicking myself for not buying them then, especially at a dollar a piece if I remember correctly.

 

Somebody with some chemical knowhow really ought to try and figure out what makes up Carter's ink and get some ink manufacturer interested in making it again, since cheapo-throwaway office supplier obviously has no interest.

[jniforat]

it's really unfortunate this company no longer exists. from the reviews of the purple and brown, i would no longer be on an ink search

[watch_art]

Dang that's nice.

[lovemy51]

there's some available here: http://cgi.ebay.com/Carters-Permanent-Blue-Black-Bottled-Ink-NEW-OLD-STOCK-/370295174761?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item56374ff669

 

(no aff)

[Frank C]

I am reluctant to revive an old topic, but I have a relevant question; to your knowledge, was all of Carter's Blue-Black permanent ink iron gall? I recently picked up a bottle off the bay and was curious. Thanks.

[lapis]

Excellent review! Thanks to Frank -- just in front of this post of mine -- I discovered this site only today.

 

Mike

[amberleadavis]

@Frank -- do you think your bottle will be the same as the small bottles? I was thinking the amount we decanted looks a little different in shade (which may not mean anything).

[RobbW]

I'm wondering if you have experience with Noodler's Manhattan Blue and could commend on how similar/different it is to the Carter's BB. MB is supposed to be a replica of Carter's BB, but your scans don't look like MB. The ink on the sides of the bottles looks very much like the in in my MB bottles. It's a gorgeous color.

[welch]

I've read the Carter story before, and it still makes me furious. Vandals. Mindless destroyers of history -- so many recipes -- and of beauty -- ink. That's Avery Dennison.

[Bo Bo Olson]

It's slow drying was surely why every desk had a rolling blotter.

[AD64]

I found this auction, including the midnight blue black ink, over on the big auction today:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Vintage-Carters-Ink-Bottles-Canadian-Geese-886-and-Cats-/201584177141?hash=item2eef5a6ff5:g:2ZoAAOSwubRXNpp1

[inkstainedruth]

Somehow I missed this thread in the past (probably from not knowing enough about the brand back then).

Someone gave me a small jar (not the original bottle) of Carter's Midnight Blue last fall as a trade for a bottle of Noodler's Miles Standish LE. I wasn't sure whether the ink was pale because of being diluted, or pale because that's just the color. (Now I'm suspecting that it's a combination thereof -- my ink journal notes are pale like in the original scan, but also bluer). I also hadn't known it was an IG ink when I got the jar. As for the question someone had several years ago about how it compares with Noodler's Manhattan Blue? Well, if my jar is any indication, there's isn't much to compare (although back when Art Brown's was still open in NYC I bought a bottle of the Noodler's in an attempt to match some unknown blue-black ink -- which had come out of an Esterbrook SJ I had picked up in the wild the previous fall -- for color and shading; and Marilyn Brown herself told me to check out the Noodler's because it was supposed to emulate the old Carter's ink).

I've also become a fan of their ad campaign with the white mother cat and her ink-colored kittens. I ran across a framed print -- NOT a magazine ad, BTW -- in an antiques mall a couple of months ago. I don't know whether it was from a wall calendar or what. It's not in the best shape (and the frame job was *terrible*) but I saw it out of the corner of my eye and said "Aha!" and it was also under $20 US, crappy frame job and all. Trying to decide whether it's worth bringing to Triangle Pen Show next week to show around and maybe get more info (no -- it's NOT for sale) or wait till the fall and the Ohio Pen Show on the grounds there will be more likely people hawking ephemera at the bigger show. It's not one of the super-cute ones (my favorite is the one of the kittens playing baseball) but it's definitely from the same ad campaign (basically it's the mother cat sitting surrounded by the kittens doing kitten-like things).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[AD64]

I continue to enjoy these Carter ink reviews, TP. Again, thank you.

 

To imagine that there were demi-bottles ... Fit for a ladies travel writing desk, at least in my imagination.

[PS104]

Thank​ you for reviving this thread. Fascinating history of Carter Co. Previously only heard of the Carter name. Thank you ToasterPastry for all the research. Totally agree Avery Dennison was behaving as a historical criminal for destroying all the research and formulae that Carter had done. Today we lament the passing of LE inks but Carters was an everyday ink which makes its passing all the more poignant.

Edited May 28, 2016 by PS104

[Lunoxmos]

Totally agree Avery Dennison was behaving as a historical criminal for destroying all the research and formulae that Carter had done.

 

 

I've read the Carter story before, and it still makes me furious. Vandals. Mindless destroyers of history -- so many recipes -- and of beauty -- ink. That's Avery Dennison.

 

 

Who was the clod at Dennison that was responsible for a foolish error of such magnitude? "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" comes to mind.. recall you don't emoticons, or I'd surely use the hand on the hips gah-guy > here "_".

will there be more reviews? hope so!

 

 

In fact, Dennison destroyed all of the research Carter’s had accumulated over the past 100 years.

 

I am really quite horrified that this ended up happening, even though the discarding of the files happened before I was even born. It's sad to see fountain pen and ink brands being successively swallowed up by larger corporations as something that is happening more and more, being inevitable due to the wane of the use of the fountain pen. But I still do think that discarding all the files was a tragedy in it's own right, especially the less of all the intellectual material and research.