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At a local vintage store, I have found some vintage ink. Some of it was GTG right out of the bottle, most even almost full, and then there was the one which was just powder at the bottom of the bottle. I bargained with the owner and got for about 1 $, basically thinking, "well, if nothing else, it's a nice bottle". This is, BTW, a real aged bottle & box where the founder of Pelikan, Günther Wagner, is prominently displayed. At that time, perhaps the Pelikan brand was not so widely recognized? The type of ink is Königsblau, or Royal Blue, which is fine for comparison, since I already have a new Pelikan 4001 Royal Blue. Or so I thought... 💙 I add 10 ml of water to try and reconstitute the powder into ink, splosh it around a little and let it sit. No hurry, if it takes a bit, I have other inks to play with. I re-visit this bottle now & then the next week, and it seems that this is going nicely forward, except the color is not looking exactly Royal Blue, quite dark, perhaps grey? 🧐 Then disaster strikes: Our 1 YO puppy gets a hold of the bottle from my desk and uses it as a chew toy, with almost all ink ending up on the floor (or in her stomach), box is ruined, lid to bottle is simply gone - (eaten?) only survivor is the glass bottle itself, with perhaps ½ a ml lying in a corner of it. 😮 No time to waste, must make proper ink swab immediately! Luckily, I have recently gotten, also vintage, a handmade book with 300 gsm paper which I am using as my "Book of Ink" - so I at least have the proper medium for this. When applied, using a dip pen first, then a syringe to get up ink and put it to paper, I see an enormous amount of surface tension in the ink, see pic 1, and it has the color of medium to charcoal grey, depending on saturation. I see a hint of brown also, almost like coke (the fuel). Not at all what you'd expect! To honor this survivor of things life has thrown against it but the puppy with powers of Galactus, almost I rescue one side of the cardboard box and attach to the page of the ink swab, so I can remember the story of the Königsblau (King's Blue) which became Dark Grey in its old age. Pic 2. This has all been quite the learning experience with ups & downs & new things - I can't say that I'm sad with the end result, even if I didn't get to write much more than 10 words with this ink. Stay safe, Daneaxe