What kind of inks were used when fountain pens were invented?

[PeregrineFalcon]

If I understand correctly, fountain pens were invented around the 1880’s. What kind of ink colors were used back then?

 

I really like that vintage look, and always wanted to replicate it, but wasn’t sure what kind of ink was used to get that antiquated appearance as time passed. 
 

I heard iron gall inks caused inks eventually caused the color to go blue over time back then, even if they were originally black in color, but I forgot where I heard that; not sure if it’s true. 

[arcfide]

The gold standard of inks in most countries at that time was iron gall blue-black ink, particularly in the West. Carbon-based inks like Sumi and the like were popular in the East, but at that point, fountain pens were not popular in that region. 

 

Iron gall ink was the standard "business" ink, and many people would have recipes for making it themselves or for purchasing it. As a business ink, it went down blue, but oxidized to a black ink. Over time, this ink would brown into something more like a Sepia style ink. 

 

That being said, by that time, I believe aniline dyes were coming into fashion, and a wide range of inks were used of different colors for requirements other than the "scholarly business" work. Inks were made from Walnuts, dyes, and a wide range of powdered pigments. The vast majority of these inks were wholly inappropriate for use in fountain pens. However, at the time, there were a lot of different inks that could be used, and some countries had more colorful fashions with respect to personal writing than others. 

 

By that time, dip pens were still the primary method of writing, and not many people would have used fountain pens at all. Particularly, i don't believe there were many fountain pens in active use in Europe at that time. In America, the dip pen was still the king at the time, especially the pointed steel nib. Most writing and penmanship books were written at the time with an eye towards dip pens rather than fountain pens. 

 

Thus, most of the inks at that time were designed to work well in dip pens, and not in fountain pens. However, the "vintage" look that you see today would not have been what most people at that time would have seen. Paper at the time could be quite acidic, and inks weren't always as long lived (there's a book discussing this written around that time which particularly praises iron gall and India inks for their longevity, while specifically calling out the "colored writing fluids" of the day for being inappropriate for any real writing). This means that many of the ink samples we have from that time on paper are changed in some way compared to the originals. Iron gall inks would have looked brighter and bolder as a black, and other colors would have also been brighter. You can see this when you look at some of the new writing done in traditional iron gall ink recipes. 

 

In order for fountain pens to really start working, they required some sort of ink that would work well. During those early days, there was definitely the impression of many inks being inappropriate. The safety pen, for example, was partly created as a way to keep the whole pen wet all the time, so that the pen could be used with India inks and other things that would otherwise destroy a pen. 

 

However, during that time, the writing fluids based on aniline dyes and iron gall inks proved to be the most reliable in fountain pens. People generally abandoned the use of pigmented inks in their pens at that time and stuck to inks that had no sediment in it. Iron gall inks could be used, especially if you really needed the best water resistance and archival qualities. If you look at the inks from the early fountain pen kings like Waterman, you'll see that they often had an iron gall blue black offering and then the rest of their offerings were various types of dyes which would represent some of the colors available at the time. The goal at that time was primarily to make sure that the pens didn't dry out and clog, so they needed inks that would avoid crudding up over time. Iron gall was as close as they could get to something with pigment in it. 

 

Given these restrictions, the options were mostly limited to various types of dye-based inks. Most of the original inks of that time that gained popularity were usually built off of some aniline or equivalent dyes and then some additives to help with flow. These inks generally came in the form of a "jet black", blue, blue black, green, violet, and red version (or at least, those were the common colors you see listed in catalogues). You could occasionally find a turquoise or other ink, but I think those were the most popular. 

 

One thing to keep in mind is that writing at that time was *very* much a professional and social quality. As such, your choice of ink was as much about the impression it would make on the reader as it was a personal thing. As such, for correspondence and most other work, there was a pretty general consensus on what types of inks were expected, though that could vary from country to country. At that time in America, where fountain pens were first really taking off, business correspondence was done in black ink, or blue black, and you just wouldn't have used something else. Personal correspondence was more varied, but even then, you generally wouldn't have wanted to stray too far from blue or black, and doing so would mark you as something of an eccentric, especially as a man. Women were given more liberty with respect to colors, I believe, in many of the early fountain pen heavy countries. There are some great examples of subverting that expectation, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule. There are some writers that were famous for using blue or green ink instead of the more common blue black, black, or walnut inks, but they aren't the common cases. 

 

If you want to see what inks were more traditionally used in fountain pens at the time, look for vintage Waterman and other fountain pen inks. That will give you an idea of what people had available to them at the time. 

 

On the other hand, if you want that aged look, rather than the authentic look of what people would have used at the time, then I'd encourage you to look into some of the various iron gall inks that stray into the brown, sand, and sepia territories from various makers. Those will give you a combination of the dry and unique feeling of iron gall inks with lots of shading, as well as that vintage feel without the time needed to "age" the ink. 

[Karmachanic]

7 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I really like that vintage look, and always wanted to replicate it, but wasn’t sure what kind of ink was used to get that antiquated appearance as time passed.

 

Iron gall for the most part.  It is age that renders the look you are after.  Having been down this path myself I've settled for KWZ Honey diluted 5:4

 

You may find something that suits you here.

[Runnin_Ute]

There was a time when I was pursuing the same vintage looking color. The answer for me was Pelikan 4001 Blue Black. When it came time to replace my second bottle, I couldn't find one. I then found FPN, and a member had an extra bottle they were willing to sell me. For subsequent bottles, I have had to go to the UK to get it. My last bottle was bought from Cult Pens in the UK. For a variety of reasons, Pelikan stopped importing 4001 Blue Black into the US sometime before the fall of 2012, which is when I went looking. It is a mild iron gall formulation. I keep it in a pen all the time. It has been in my Pelikan 140 for over five years now. That pen arrived in August 2017 - it had two fills of something else and they were both in August/September 2017. But it provides the look that I wanted.

[PeregrineFalcon]

@arcfide Very interesting, thank you! I’ll begin looking into those vintage Waterman inks. I have a modern Waterman Intense Black on hand, but I’m guessing it’s a completely different recipe. 
 

For modern iron gall inks, I’ve been eyeing Platinum Classic Sepia. 
 

@Karmachanic Thanks for the link, kind of tricky just tell from pictures though; I have Yama-guri and the color is a bit different in person.

 

@Runnin_Ute Is this the same ink you mentioned? I think I tried ordering it before but it said they wouldn’t ship to California 😕  I noticed you said you put iron gall ink in a Pelikan 140 pen - will iron gall ink harm or corrode gold nib pens over time?

[txomsy]

Röhrer und Klingner Salix and Scabiosa inks are also iron gall and may give you the looks you fancy. Easier to come by and not expensive.

[Tony1951]

On 11/30/2022 at 7:50 AM, arcfide said:

The gold standard of inks in most countries at that time was iron gall blue-black ink, particularly in the West. Carbon-based inks like Sumi and the like were popular in the East, but at that point, fountain pens were not popular in that region. 

 

Iron gall ink was the standard "business" ink, and many people would have recipes for making it themselves or for purchasing it. As a business ink, it went down blue, but oxidized to a black ink. Over time, this ink would brown into something more like a Sepia style ink. 

 

That being said, by that time, I believe aniline dyes were coming into fashion, and a wide range of inks were used of different colors for requirements other than the "scholarly business" work. Inks were made from Walnuts, dyes, and a wide range of powdered pigments. The vast majority of these inks were wholly inappropriate for use in fountain pens. However, at the time, there were a lot of different inks that could be used, and some countries had more colorful fashions with respect to personal writing than others. 

 

By that time, dip pens were still the primary method of writing, and not many people would have used fountain pens at all. Particularly, i don't believe there were many fountain pens in active use in Europe at that time. In America, the dip pen was still the king at the time, especially the pointed steel nib. Most writing and penmanship books were written at the time with an eye towards dip pens rather than fountain pens. 

 

Thus, most of the inks at that time were designed to work well in dip pens, and not in fountain pens. However, the "vintage" look that you see today would not have been what most people at that time would have seen. Paper at the time could be quite acidic, and inks weren't always as long lived (there's a book discussing this written around that time which particularly praises iron gall and India inks for their longevity, while specifically calling out the "colored writing fluids" of the day for being inappropriate for any real writing). This means that many of the ink samples we have from that time on paper are changed in some way compared to the originals. Iron gall inks would have looked brighter and bolder as a black, and other colors would have also been brighter. You can see this when you look at some of the new writing done in traditional iron gall ink recipes. 

 

In order for fountain pens to really start working, they required some sort of ink that would work well. During those early days, there was definitely the impression of many inks being inappropriate. The safety pen, for example, was partly created as a way to keep the whole pen wet all the time, so that the pen could be used with India inks and other things that would otherwise destroy a pen. 

 

However, during that time, the writing fluids based on aniline dyes and iron gall inks proved to be the most reliable in fountain pens. People generally abandoned the use of pigmented inks in their pens at that time and stuck to inks that had no sediment in it. Iron gall inks could be used, especially if you really needed the best water resistance and archival qualities. If you look at the inks from the early fountain pen kings like Waterman, you'll see that they often had an iron gall blue black offering and then the rest of their offerings were various types of dyes which would represent some of the colors available at the time. The goal at that time was primarily to make sure that the pens didn't dry out and clog, so they needed inks that would avoid crudding up over time. Iron gall was as close as they could get to something with pigment in it. 

 

Given these restrictions, the options were mostly limited to various types of dye-based inks. Most of the original inks of that time that gained popularity were usually built off of some aniline or equivalent dyes and then some additives to help with flow. These inks generally came in the form of a "jet black", blue, blue black, green, violet, and red version (or at least, those were the common colors you see listed in catalogues). You could occasionally find a turquoise or other ink, but I think those were the most popular. 

 

One thing to keep in mind is that writing at that time was *very* much a professional and social quality. As such, your choice of ink was as much about the impression it would make on the reader as it was a personal thing. As such, for correspondence and most other work, there was a pretty general consensus on what types of inks were expected, though that could vary from country to country. At that time in America, where fountain pens were first really taking off, business correspondence was done in black ink, or blue black, and you just wouldn't have used something else. Personal correspondence was more varied, but even then, you generally wouldn't have wanted to stray too far from blue or black, and doing so would mark you as something of an eccentric, especially as a man. Women were given more liberty with respect to colors, I believe, in many of the early fountain pen heavy countries. There are some great examples of subverting that expectation, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule. There are some writers that were famous for using blue or green ink instead of the more common blue black, black, or walnut inks, but they aren't the common cases. 

 

If you want to see what inks were more traditionally used in fountain pens at the time, look for vintage Waterman and other fountain pen inks. That will give you an idea of what people had available to them at the time. 

 

On the other hand, if you want that aged look, rather than the authentic look of what people would have used at the time, then I'd encourage you to look into some of the various iron gall inks that stray into the brown, sand, and sepia territories from various makers. Those will give you a combination of the dry and unique feeling of iron gall inks with lots of shading, as well as that vintage feel without the time needed to "age" the ink. 

You can make Iron-gall ink very easily, and incredibly cheaply too. Iron sulphate is very very cheap and so is tea from which you can derive the necessary tannins.

 

If people want a rapid transition to a sepia colour - in perhaps a month, just use tannic acid from tea with iron sulphate. My first attempts at IG ink just used very strong tea that was reduced by boiling to more concentrated form mixed at a rate of 2.5 gm iron sulphate with 75 -100 ml of tannin. My latest iterations have used fermented tannic acid and they turn black or dark grey depending on the wetness of the pen used to write with them. Fermenting the tannic acid turns it into another form referred to in notes on the subject as gallo-tannic acid. To do this, I tried to get the authentic mould spores that you would find on oak trees and gathered a few fallen acorns and husks from the same. I chopped these up in a coffee grinder and mixed them with very strong tea made with five tea bags and about 100ml of boiling water. I boiled this tea for about five minutes let it cool to room temperature and then mixed in the spore bearing chopped acorns when the mixture was cold enough not to harm the spores, This grim looking fluid was kept in  a sealed jar for a month. It rapidly was covered in mould on top of the fluid and this transforms the ink to a much darker colour and it does not seem so far (one month is the age of the sample) to fade to a sepia brown. IT is a very dark brown/black colour.

 

Like all pure IG inks the stuff goes onto the page very faint and rapidly darkens over a couple of minutes. The effect is slightly off putting because it is a bit like using secret writing ink at first.

[Karmachanic]

4 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I have Yama-guri and the color is a bit different in person.

 

Which is why I look at as many reviews as I can find before purchasing a sample.

[Runnin_Ute]

On 12/4/2022 at 11:48 PM, PeregrineFalcon said:

@Runnin_Ute Is this the same ink you mentioned? I think I tried ordering it before but it said they wouldn’t ship to California 😕  I noticed you said you put iron gall ink in a Pelikan 140 pen - will iron gall ink harm or corrode gold nib pens over time?

 

Gold is a non-ferrous material, so no even some of the stronger iron gall formulations like Diamine Registrar's or ESSR won't cause a gold nib to corrode. My Pelikan 140 (F) has a wonderful semi-flex 14k gold nib. I flush it with clear water maybe once or twice a year.

 

I had Pelikan 4001 Blue Black shipped from Cult Pens in the UK to my home in Utah without issues.  Must be a California thing.

[abstract49]

As my business is researching old public records (52 years at it, mostly in Texas, so the records generally only go back to early to mid 19th Century), I have looked at literally thousands, possibly millions of pages of indices and transcriptions.

 

Mostly, these records have a brownish appearance, and I have been led to understand that black, iron gall based ink oxidizes and takes on the brown (or reddish) tone, just as rust on the surface of an iron implement appears brown to red.

 

Any other observations or learned studies known of?  I like discussions of these things.

[PeregrineFalcon]

@Runnin_Ute Thanks for the info, I just ordered a Pelikan 4001 Blue Black from Amazon; hope it’s a legit formulation. I heard it was a dry ink, so I hope it can temper the line thickness from a new gold nib pen I got that’s writing too thick a line. 
 

Other iron gall inks I’m looking at is:

Platinum Sepia Black

Diamine Registrar Blue Black

R&K Salix 

 

@abstract49 Neat! Have any idea up to what year the ink kept its original blue colors?

[XYZZY]

So what form is the iron that precipitates out of iron gall inks?  It sounds like that sepia colored thing it turns into over time might be Iron(III) oxide (aka "rust").  But what where the molecules when they precipitated out of the iron gall ink?

[Karmachanic]

On 12/7/2022 at 5:49 AM, abstract49 said:

Mostly, these records have a brownish appearance, and I have been led to understand that black, iron gall based ink oxidizes and takes on the brown (or reddish) tone, just as rust on the surface of an iron implement appears brown to red.

 

As exhibited in some of Michaelangelo's drawings and notes. Rembrant also comes to mind.

 

[Karmachanic]

2 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Platinum Sepia Black

 

If you're interested Hakase sells Real Sepia Ink

[El Gordo]

13 hours ago, XYZZY said:

So what form is the iron that precipitates out of iron gall inks?  It sounds like that sepia colored thing it turns into over time might be Iron(III) oxide (aka "rust").  But what where the molecules when they precipitated out of the iron gall ink?

You could use www.irongallink.org as a start, it has a section on the chemistry of igi.

[txomsy]

14 hours ago, XYZZY said:

So what form is the iron that precipitates out of iron gall inks?  It sounds like that sepia colored thing it turns into over time might be Iron(III) oxide (aka "rust").  But what where the molecules when they precipitated out of the iron gall ink?

 

IG should go down unoxidized and then change with time... Should, as it could have begun to oxidize in the bottle if not well sealed.

 

I hope these examples will help:  Color is not exactly right but...

 

This is from a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci, actual color is sort of a dark violet/dark purple

 

 

I would say that it represents a middle stage of color "degradation". I took the picture from a modern edition of Leonardo's notebooks.

 

Next might be a better example of more advanced degradation: It is from a medieval manuscript with an introdution to the life of toruvadour Jauffré Rudel (...1125-1148...)in the Chansonnier Provençal, end of 13th century. Image taken from the book "Les plus beaux manuscrits des poètes français".

 

 

I think one can say that the ink is here a lot more "degraded", but note that the red ink and some of the colors in the illumination (besides the gold foil, obviously) seem very well preserved.

 

Yet, one should be aware that it does not need to be that way. The next one is from a Canso, also by Jauffré Rudel, but this time from the "Chansonnier de La Vallière", from the beginning of 14th century (lame picture taken from the same "Les plus beaux manuscrits des poètes français"):

 

 

Despite the relatively small difference in time, here text is black, but illumination colors are also stronger and darker. There are annotations at the margin that have "degraded", however.

 

I think that what one can say is that, in the end, it will all depend on the quality of the inks used, the use of the manuscript and on the writing surface, but as the last example shows, one can have both on the same surface.

 

If one wants aged/vintage looks, one may aim for a wide range of colors.

 

For example, Salix would give a blue-black, but a tinted black may also look old, Scabiosa would be like more clear than some of Leonardo's sketches, Browns, Sepias may also do, or even Noodler's Rome is Burning would be (depending on watering) sepia or purple, and so many more.

 

The reason is evident when one goes over ancient copybooks: each of them had one or more different recipes for ink, where tea, wine, and other ingredients (and note also the wide varieties possible for each ingredient, tea, wine, etc.) would be mixed, which would give different qualities and tones to the ink. Much like today.

 

Again, one may use a very wide range of colors to evoke aged ink, just pick the one you like the most.

[arcfide]

Something else that confounds the "old ink look" is that many times, it can even be a little difficult to figure out what the original ink was in the first place. Sometimes, people would literally reink manuscripts that were fading so that they would be renewed, and sometimes those were done with a different type of ink than the original. And while Iron Gall ink came to be the standard because it was difficult to erase off of parchment, carbon black ink was also in common use (called lamp black in some places) even though it could be erased. Sometimes an ink was used precisely because it was erasable (I think there were some Roman authors quoted as having delivered their manuscripts in erasable ink so that the editor could do things with it). And then you have all sorts of other inks that were based on many other pigments, such as Sepia, Walnut (I think), and the various colored inks, some of which lasted longer than others. Some manuscripts suffered under much more harsh conditions than others, and that definitely had a tendency to affect iron gall inks. Some of the iron gall inks were better mixes than others. 

 

Thus, there really isn't a single definitive old ink look, though aged iron gall is about as close as you can get, but as the great examples above show, just what counts as aged can vary a lot. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

On 12/7/2022 at 5:22 AM, Runnin_Ute said:

I had Pelikan 4001 Blue Black shipped from Cult Pens in the UK to my home in Utah without issues.  Must be a California thing.

US FDA used wimpy American  rats instead of strong Norwegian rats to cancer test....They used confiscated O-Fest 1 quart beer mugs filled with ink and um pa music to drive those rats to drink.

 

Luckily no one in US Customs uses fountain pens, so if one orders a few German inks at all at once, one can smuggle in the US forbidden 4001 BB.

In The US was and is a nitch market, so Pelikan didn't worry about it; having China, India and SE Asia along with South America and the rest of the world where BB is legal..