Carter's American Blue

[ToasterPastry]

Carter's American Blue Ink

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_American_Blue_4.jpg

 

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. They were one of the first companies in the 1860s to introduce blue-black ink. Carter’s is most recently recognized for its decorative cube-shaped jars from the 1940s to 1950s featuring entertaining artwork, but they also introduced collectable jars from the earlier part of the 20th century. The cubes were designed to be inserted mouth-downward into Carter's ink-stand.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_American_Blue_1.jpg

 

What makes writing with Carter’s Inks so special? We’re talking about writing with a 70-year-old ink here. Unlike many of the modern inks, the vintage inks were formulated with more water. Therefore, they were less saturated. They seem to work better in vintage pens with more flexible nibs. Of course, assuming some evaporation has occurred, it is difficult to know exactly what is the exact water-to-dye ratio. In this case, the ink was a bit too saturated, and initially dried in the pen. I added water, wrote with it for a bit, added more water, and tried it out again, until eventually the color, saturation, and degree of shading was to my liking. The inks rarely bleed through cheaper papers. But the drying time is sacrificed, as the ink dries on the surface of the paper. It flows well, and shades beautifully. The colors may have changed. As shown here, the blue is a bit more gray,

 

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. In one instance, I wanted to use the ink so badly, that, after filtering the inks several times through coffee filters, I dripped in a couple of drops of fungicide, then let the ink set for several months to ensure no re-growth.

 

From but From about 1937 to 1942, Carter's ink designated their colors as 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. In addition to Sunset Red, I have seen Carter’s Hunter’s Red and, of course, just Red.

 

Carter’s American Blue is an iconic color, true to the Carter’s blue color line. It was re-labeled as “American” during the World War II years, introduced in 1941. The color is darker than most known blue inks, more of a blue-gray. I had been looking for a bottle with ink it for about two years. Sam at Pendemonium was kind enough to present me with my own bottle at the 2012 Los Angles Pen Show. My sample swabs show a slight degradation of the blue color. But it’s still very much useable.

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_ink_ad_1942.jpg

 

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

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_ink_ad_1941.jpg

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_American_Blue_5.jpg

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_American_Blue_3.jpg

 

http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn130/ToasterPastryphoto/Carters_American_Blue_2.jpg

[georges zaslavsky]

very interesting and nice color

[ToasterPastry]

Thanks George.

 

A couple of things I forgot to mention. The advertising for Carter's Ink (the famous Carter's Kittens) was painted by Albert Staehle, a well known commercial illustrator at that time.

 

I believe, that over the 70 years, the blue color has faded. Note the color samples. The final swab is probably close to the original color, one from the unopened bottle of "Washable Blue." All of the writing samples and swabs are digitally photographed outdoors to preserve the hues that are often lost in the scanner.

[The Good Captain]

I've some 40s Quink Permanent Blue-Black that's a similar grey colour. The bottle's a beauty.

[ToasterPastry]

I've some 40s Quink Permanent Blue-Black that's a similar grey colour. The bottle's a beauty.

 

I have several unusable inks of this vintage (mostly Sanford inks). Surprisingly most red inks seem stable. I wanted to review as much of the Carter's line of inks as possible. Someone had asked about American Blue, and so I included it here. I think it's important not only to show current inks but keep a database of retired or vintage inks, especially considering the Ink Sample Book is no longer published. FPN does a good job of showing both (as long as the picture links are still current).

[geoduc]

Thanks, ToasterPastry. I always enjoy your vintage ink reviews - it's interesting to learn the history of the inks and to see the vintage colors. The ads are a nice bonus as well.

[Chris S]

That's so cool. I wish I could like out and find some vintage inks. Thanks for sharing.

[jandrese]

Cool, thanks for sharing. Love those old ads.

[Uncle Red]

Great to see the old inks in context, thanks for the review.

[dcpritch]

How different would you say American Blue is from Carter's Washable Blue, an ink of which I have at least two bottles?

[ToasterPastry]

How different would you say American Blue is from Carter's Washable Blue, an ink of which I have at least two bottles?

 

I kick myself for seeing all of the bottles of American Blue that have come and gone. That was before I started collecting vintage ink.

 

I probably didn't elaborate on this enough in the original post. It seemed intuitively obvious to me, but not to others. Sorry.

 

1. I have about a dozen bottles of Carter's Washable Blue, two of which I think I sold to you, if I correctly recall. I have acquired this ink over probably 20 to 30 years of production. The blue-gray color never seems to change. I don't have blue ink in the last years of production in the 1970s. It would be nice to have, just to see if there was any difference.

2. I have also noticed that Carter's Washable Blue isn't really washable. Well, it is, but you really have to work at it. That's probably a stretch to suggest that Washable Blue and American (Permanent) Blue ink were one and the same ink, just packaged in different bottles. More likely, they were similar inks, but the American Blue ink had more "Permanent" juice in it.

3. Throughout the company history, as far as I can tell, Carter's never created multiple shades of blue, like modern ink companies seem to do. Blue was blue.

4. My guess, although I do not have multiple samples to compare, is that the original color of Washable Blue and American (Permanent) Blue were exactly the same as provided in my third swab sample. That sample is probably the original color of all their blue inks. I was pretty lucky to find such a bottle. It's amazing to realize that in a 2-ounce bottle, only a small fraction of it is actually dye; most of it is water.

[rudyhou]

i never heard or seen this brand before. thank you for sharing. and GREAT penmanship

[Garageboy]

I'm guessing this is the ink Noodlers Manhattan Blue set out to duplicate?

[dcpritch]

I'm guessing this is the ink Noodlers Manhattan Blue set out to duplicate?

 

That's a good question - makes me wonder if Nathan ever indicated what he was shooting for.

[inkstainedruth]

Thanks for posting the review -- and the empherera (the ones with the cats were just *adorable* ads!)

I could have picked up a bottle of Carter's last summer in an antiques mall in north central PA over the summer, but didn't know enought about the brand (don't remember offhand what the color was, and I don't know if there was still ink in the bottle). Instead I opted for the vintage bottle of what turned out to be Quink Red (but which looks more like brownish burgundy on the swab I made).

I'd been trying to figure out what the ink was in the Esterbrook SJ I picked up a few weeks ago. I'm wondering now if it was something like this, only -- since it obviously had dried out -- more concentrated. It definitely looks like some sort of dark blue/blue-black color, but was sufficiently dark that I don't think it's the Washable Blue that you show in your scans.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ToasterPastry]

Thanks for posting the review -- and the empherera (the ones with the cats were just *adorable* ads!)

I could have picked up a bottle of Carter's last summer in an antiques mall in north central PA over the summer, but didn't know enought about the brand (don't remember offhand what the color was, and I don't know if there was still ink in the bottle). Instead I opted for the vintage bottle of what turned out to be Quink Red (but which looks more like brownish burgundy on the swab I made).

I'd been trying to figure out what the ink was in the Esterbrook SJ I picked up a few weeks ago. I'm wondering now if it was something like this, only -- since it obviously had dried out -- more concentrated. It definitely looks like some sort of dark blue/blue-black color, but was sufficiently dark that I don't think it's the Washable Blue that you show in your scans.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

The joy of collecting vintage ink is taking a chance and getting something useable, and then realizing that you're using something that's 70 years old.

[Garageboy]

It does look like Noodlers Manhattan Blue, but I've never seen what Carters Midnight Blue, Midnight Blue Black and Washable Blue looks like

[Sailor Kenshin]

This is awesome. I,ve seen Carter ink for sale on fleabay, and they get snapped up. Maybe if I find a Buy It Now ....

[dcpritch]

I've not been able to locate any Carter's American Blue, but I do have some Carter's Washable Blue (thanks to a very kind fellow in San Diego!), and it retains amazing color, even providing some sheen effect when using a very wet nib like the BB nib in the Waterman's 52 shown below:

 

[Garageboy]

https://mountainofink.com/blog/carters-washable-blue

 

Just stumbled upon this - nice alternatives too