Carter's Washable Blue

[ToasterPastry]

Carter's Washable Blue

 

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Drawing of the Carter's plant with its large electric sign, as could be seen from the Charles River in Boston. This drawing was taken from Carter's own publication, "The Story Your Ink Bottle Tells," 1927. (Courtesy of philm.)

 

 

Great artists have their blue period. I had mine. Right now I’m writing with vintage red inks with lots of shading; it looks like blood. But a year ago, I had the blues. I found an old bottle of Carter’s Washable Blue (color #969) with the ink dried to powder. One day I decided to add a little water, and I had ink. I loved the color so much, it’s steely gray-blue, that I decided to buy more bottles, some filled with ink, some with powder (I now have 5 bottles of Washable Blue in the event of a great ink apocalyspse). This was my signature ink; that is until I got bored with the color and moved on to another one. I still love Carter’s Washable Blue. It flows well. It shades well. It doesn’t bleed through paper, and it cleans up easily. Although nothing is as washable or as temporary as Skrip Washable Blue. For the first draw of ink, I usually choose Carter’s Washable Blue. Some may confuse washable for permanence on paper over time. However, this ink stays true on the paper, as much as it has in the bottle.

 

Carter’s, a Boston-based company, was once the largest ink manufacturer in the world, producing ink for almost every application until the company operation was purchased in 1975 by Avery-Dennison. When it comes to fountain pen inks, Carter’s is most famous for its decorative cube-shaped jars featuring entertaining artwork. These jars are a favorite among collectors. The cubes were designed to be inserted mouth-downward into Carter's ink-stand. As a collector, I try to find ones with inks still in them. In most cases the bottles are empty. Sometimes the ink has dried to powder and can be reconstituted. Rarely, full bottles turn up. If you plan to purchase vintage ink, beware that some bottles contain sludge and fungus. This ink should never be loaded into a fountain pen.

 

My 2-ounce bottles are from the 1940s. I’ve seen similar appearing jars marked “Old Colony,” “Rexall,” and “Belmont.” These are Carter’s ink repackaged for United Drugs Stores (Rexall).

 

For more information, be certain to review Phil Munson's blog entry on Carter's inks. Another take on the history of Carter's Ink (especially Carter's pens) is by Rob Astyk in Lion & Pen.

 

 

 

 

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Fountain Pen Network and its subsidiaries does not endorse the use of Style Parades. However, if you choose to have a Style Parade in the privacy of your own home, please ensure that you use Carter's. These ads appeared in 1941.

 

 

 

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Writing sample and color swabs of Carter's Washable Blue, comparing its color to modern Waterman's Florida Blue.

 

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You may run across a bottle of Rexall, Belmont, or Old Colony ink. Yes, it's Carter's ink.

[Bill Smith]

I really love these series of reviews with Carter's ink, I can't wait for the American Blue one to come up.

[pen2paper]

I really love these series of reviews with Carter's ink, I can't wait for the American Blue one to come up.

Me too!

[Miranda]

I hope we don't have to come and interrupt your style parade to coax further fab reviews from you!

[Russ]

Thanks for posting the wonderful ads!

[Yoda4561]

I love the artwork on those old Carter's bottles. But Sunset Green?? I know there's a bit of green flash at one point in a sunset, but I didn't think it was well known enough back then to make an ink named after it. If you ever land a bottle of that I'd love to see it.

[ToasterPastry]

I love the artwork on those old Carter's bottles. But Sunset Green?? I know there's a bit of green flash at one point in a sunset, but I didn't think it was well known enough back then to make an ink named after it. If you ever land a bottle of that I'd love to see it.

 

 

Yes, Sunset Green seems pretty odd. Actually, from about 1937 to 1942, Carter's ink designated their colors as either Permanent, Waterproof, and Sunset, with the colored inks like red, violet and green receiving the Sunset designation. The Permanent and Waterproof lines were primarily blue, black and blue-black. I believe that Carter's did a lot of reformulation, repackaging, and renaming. Sunset Green became Gulf Green, and then later Green. Sunset Violet became Tulip Purple, which became Mountain Violet, which became Purple.

[HDoug]

What a great post! May it never rain on your style parade!

 

Doug

[Jared]

Thanks for this wonderful post. I picked up a bottle of Carter's Washable Blue for a few bucks at a table at the last DC Supershow and have been using it in my Pilot VP for notes. No problems with this ink--very nice.

[Ada]

Wonderful review! I thoroughly enjoyed it, even more than your previous Carter's ink reviews, which were great fun to read.

[SamCapote]

I'm surprised at how dark of a blue that is.

 

Those ads are the best. I love the woman saying: "Even if Carter's weren't my favorite inks, I'd still buy they for their gay "style parade" of their bottles. That was normal back in 1941 !!! So funny. I lament their going out of business.