Vintage Sheaffer’s Skrip Ink Bottle~Jet Black -- President Kennedy.

[JFKFP]

Hello everyone,

I am a JFK collector and I wanted to find the exact same bottle of ink that the President used to sign bills, orders, and treaties.

I searched eBay for a long time and found only one matching bottle. To my surprise, it had a circle on the left side in the color of the ink, something I haven't seen on any of the hundreds of bottles I've looked at. Is this a rarity? If anyone has an answer, I'd be interested to hear it.

Thanks.

[Ceilidh]

Sorry I don't know the answer to your question, but congrats on finding the bottle. Very cool!

[JFKFP]

49 minutes ago, Ceilidh said:

Sorry I don't know the answer to your question, but congrats on finding the bottle. Very cool!

Thanks ! 

[Amberjack]

Interesting, I just checked my 60s skrip bottles, no dots but I just have red and blue.  Maybe it’s just jet black?

I do have a jet black bottle but it’s younger - no dot.

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

I've gotten a few bottles of vintage Skrip inks but I don't remember one way or the other if they have the dot on the label or not.  

I'll have to go through the stash sometime tomorrow (my husband had a migraine earlier today after eating something that contained mustard with paprika in it, and crawled into bed a couple of hours ago when we got home from something we were at (compounded by having Google Maps take us an alternate route home to avoid some sort of accident) and I don't want to wake him if I don't absolutely have to.

Is there any sort of markings I should be looking for on the boxes or labels to indicate when the ink was originally made/sold (to indicate the time period the OP is interested in?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[JFKFP]

That's the question. I don't see any difference on the boxes, except for the point that JFK uses, which is quite strange. I'll add some photos of the box.

In fact, the only difference is the words “Will Reproduce” on the bottle and the box.

[InkyProf]

PenHero has a 1959 Sheaffer's ad that clarifies the "will reproduce" phrase: they characterized their "Black Reproduction Skrip" as "the only fountain pen ink that will reproduce on every type of office copying machine." Similar language appears in a 1961 ad. That doesn't nail down the dating of your bottle/box, but it keeps it in the right general timeframe for JFK.

[Amberjack]

Another data point, following up on the ‘will reproduce’ statement.

 

From the omnipotent web hivemind…

 

The White House adopted the Xerox 914 plain paper copier, the first successful automatic office copier, shortly after its release in 1959. This revolutionary machine allowed the Eisenhower administration and subsequent administrations to rapidly duplicate documents, changing how executive office information was managed.

[inkstainedruth]

Now I'm going to have to dig out my bottles of vintage Skrip again, to see what the boxes (although not all of them have boxes) say on them.  I pulled the bottles out last night and while one of the bottles appears to have some sort of spill on the label (I think it was Skrip Blue Black), there is definitely NOT a "dot" on any of the bottles.  So wondering now if it was done by the original owner to keep track of what the color was actually like (i.e., an early version of an ink review, with a swatch of the actual color).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[JFKFP]

21 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Now I'm going to have to dig out my bottles of vintage Skrip again, to see what the boxes (although not all of them have boxes) say on them.  I pulled the bottles out last night and while one of the bottles appears to have some sort of spill on the label (I think it was Skrip Blue Black), there is definitely NOT a "dot" on any of the bottles.  So wondering now if it was done by the original owner to keep track of what the color was actually like (i.e., an early version of an ink review, with a swatch of the actual color).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

No, since the same brand is on a bottle that the President uses for his signatures at the White House, as can be seen in this photo.

[JFKFP]

2 hours ago, Amberjack said:

Un autre élément d'information, faisant suite à l'affirmation « se reproduira ».

 

De la part de l'intelligence collective omnipotente du web…

 

La Maison Blanche a adopté le photocopieur à papier ordinaire Xerox 914, le premier photocopieur de bureau automatique à succès, peu après sa sortie en 1959. Cette machine révolutionnaire a permis à l'administration Eisenhower et aux administrations suivantes de dupliquer rapidement des documents, changeant ainsi la façon dont l'information du bureau exécutif était gérée.

So if I understand correctly, this bottle of ink could also be used for printers?

[JFKFP]

2 hours ago, InkyProf said:

PenHero has a 1959 Sheaffer's ad that clarifies the "will reproduce" phrase: they characterized their "Black Reproduction Skrip" as "the only fountain pen ink that will reproduce on every type of office copying machine." Similar language appears in a 1961 ad. That doesn't nail down the dating of your bottle/box, but it keeps it in the right general timeframe for JFK.

Thanks for the advertisement, but I don't see the red circle on the left.

I admit that at first glance, I thought it was an ink stain.

[InkyProf]

11 minutes ago, JFKFP said:

So if I understand correctly, this bottle of ink could also be used for printers?

I don’t think so: I think the point is that if you used this ink on a document, that document would photocopy successfully. Blue inks, in particular, would sometimes fail to register properly in early photocopier technology. IIRC, there were even blue pens and pencils that were designed NOT to photocopy, so that you could mark up a black, typed document but still produce a clean, unmarked copy from the original.

[JFKFP]

4 minutes ago, InkyProf said:

Je ne crois pas : l’idée est que si vous utilisiez cette encre sur un document, celui-ci serait photocopié correctement. Les encres bleues, en particulier, pouvaient parfois avoir des problèmes d’impression avec les premiers photocopieurs. Si je me souviens bien, il existait même des stylos et des crayons bleus conçus spécifiquement pour ne pas être photocopiés, permettant ainsi d’annoter un document noir dactylographié tout en obtenant une copie propre et sans annotations.

Okay, I understand better now, thank you.

[Amberjack]

3 minutes ago, InkyProf said:

I don’t think so: I think the point is that if you used this ink on a document, that document would photocopy successfully. Blue inks, in particular, would sometimes fail to register properly in early photocopier technology. IIRC, there were even blue pens and pencils that were designed NOT to photocopy, so that you could mark up a black, typed document but still produce a clean, unmarked copy from the original.

Yes, this is how I read it...and I even recall learning (last century) that you didn't use blue pens if you wanted it to show up on your 'Xeroxed' copy.

 

I was 6 months old when JFK was shot.  My parents named me John and now I go by 'Jack'.

 

 

[InkyProf]

Mon français est meilleur que je me souviens!

 

and you’re welcome. 🙂

[JFKFP]

3 minutes ago, Amberjack said:

Oui, c'est comme ça que je l'ai interprété... et je me souviens même avoir appris (au siècle dernier) qu'il ne fallait pas utiliser de stylos bleus si l'on voulait que cela apparaisse sur la photocopie.

 

J'avais six mois quand JFK a été assassiné. Mes parents m'ont appelé John et maintenant on m'appelle « Jack ».

 

 

A great honor.

[JFKFP]

2 minutes ago, InkyProf said:

Mon français est meilleur que je me souviens!

 

and you’re welcome. 🙂

Merci 😊

[inkstainedruth]

5 hours ago, JFKFP said:

No, since the same brand is on a bottle that the President uses for his signatures at the White House, as can be seen in this photo.

Unfortunately the image doesn't seem to have loaded.  And I got an error message when I tried to click on the link....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth