Some of the most popular inks are made by J. Herbin - I have used their cartridges and bottles (you know, the demi ones with the pen rest) for years.  My personal favourites are eclat de saphir and poussière de lune; my youngest daughter’s one and only favourite - rose cyclamen.  I am looking forward to trying Vert Empire and Lie de Thé.

Interesting to note that the top selling inks made by Herbin include Perle Noire, Violette Pensée and Bleu Myosotis.  You can find out this information, as well as the history, manufacturing, download an ink chart and more from Pen And Co.’s Herbin ink pages, starting with the history page.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had purchased my Conklin Crescent filler from Jean Elie at Pen And Co. - with excellent results.  Well, in reviewing the Pen And Co. website after my pen purchase, I discovered a number of other goodies, including the best kept secret on the internet (hopefully not for long!).  Pen And Co.  sells Herbin inks here for the incredible price of just under  6 Euros per bottle and free shipping with a minimum order of 3 bottles (about $22 Cdn).  I don’t know anywhere that you can get this price and service!

I have been on a bit of a quest, if you would like, to round out my modern pen collection with examples of “classic” vintage pens, like the Parker 51 and the Big Red, etc…  Of course, no such collection would be complete without Mark Twain’s pen -  Conklin’s Self-Filling Pen or better known as the Crescent Filler (aka the one that won’t roll off your desk!).  You can read more about Conklin and Twain here.  The Crescent Filler was invented by Roy Conklin of Toledo, Ohio, USA around 1897 and was the world’s first practical self-filling pen.  In fact, the Crescent Filler was the top-selling self-filling pen on the market by 1913.

Just a brief aside about Mark Twain’ association with fountain pens.  Almost everyone knows about Twain and his love of Conklin fountain pens.  But have you ever seen this

http://www.twainquotes.com/FountainPens.html ?

Back to my new-to-me (vintage) pen.  Like my Crescent Filler, the early models had slip-caps and most are black hard rubber with a nice wave-like chasing pattern.  The chasing is worn somewhat on both ends of the barrel - from the capping of the pen and posting the cap.  

The particular model that I acquired from Pen And Co. is an S3 according to the trademark imprint near the top of the barrel.  The imprint in the bottom half of the barrel - which is relatively easy to read with the naked eye - reads ”Conklin’s Self Filling Pen, Toledo, Ohio, USA” followed by the patent dates.  What I am having difficulty establishing is the origin and nature of the clip (which slides on and off the cap).  It appears to be made of nickel or similar metal and is stamped “Modern Pat’s 5 25 00/6 22 09″ .  The nib is a #3. 

 The patent for the pen is here:  Conklin Patent for Self Filling Pen 

To fill a crescent-filler, the C-shaped hard rubber lock ring has to be turned so that its opening is under the crescent. You then press the crescent and flatten the ink sac. Put the nib in ink, release the crescent, and count to ten to allow the sac to fill.  Mine fills correctly.

 Below is a picture of my black beauty, taken by Jean Elie of Pen And Co.

It has been so cold lately.  How cold is it?  Well, it’s been so cold that … (you fill in the punchline).

Some are fortunate to have been able to escape this harsh Canadian winter by taking a nice trip to the Caribbean (if you live in Eastern Canada) or Hawaii (for those in the West).  For the rest of us who are labouring away in the dark from morning until night, there is always a little visualization (courtesy of the fortunate travellers) in the form of a postcard.  People don’t send many postcards anymore.  Too bad.  I love getting them, especially when they look like this:

I will edit this post to add more description shortly but I wanted to get the scan of the inks up for everyone to see.  The Herbin Vert Empire did not make it - when we opened the box it turned out to be Larmes de Cassis.

Now, we had a comment that the Dragon’s Napalm appeared too pink like “Hello Kitty”.  I certainly would not say that it is pink, on the other hand, I would not say it is a burnt orange that I associate with fire breathing dragon’s.  It looks like mercurochrome did (you can’t buy it anymore, at least not in Canada (China, perhaps?)).  Here is another scan of only the Dragon’s Napalm on lined Rhodia paper.