J. Herbin Bleu Pervenche

[KendallJ]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v366/justiniano/J.jpg

[georgem]

Kendall,

 

I don't know what "Pervenche" means but I just bought some and the color is striking.

 

BTW, I just learned that I can't trust the color rendition on my monitor; the color is almost a bright turquoise, but without the greenish hue often found in most turquoise colors.

 

Your sample, as depicted on my monitor, looks more like Waterman South Seas Blue that has partially evaporated from the nib before writing.

 

I agree with your comments about the depth of the bottle and size of the opening; Does anyone have suggestions on filling? Dip just the converter??

[Guest Denis Richard]

Herbin bottles are definitely not the most practical.

 

"Pervenche" is the word for Periwinkle. That's also how we call the police auxiliaries in charge of parking violations in Paris... due to the color of their uniforms.

Edited December 8, 2004 by Denis Richard

[Stephen-I-am]

Would anyone be able to compare this one to Diamine royal blue?

 

Stephen

[twdpens]

Diamine Royal Blue is bright but it is a blue not a turquoise like Herbin Periwinkle.

 

You can compare the colours here. BTW, I've just hada look myself and Periwinkle is more turquoise than that in real life.

 

Martin

[southpaw]

Thanks for the look Kendall.

[wimg]

Hi Kendall,

 

Thank you for that review! I have it in my collection, but didn't get around to trying it out yet. it looks like the box promised, so that is very good!

 

Thanks again!

 

Warm regards, Wim

[georgem]

The Herbin Bleu Pervenche is still my favorite color!. I recently obtained Diamine Royal Blue since I've been looking for a blue ink that would be clearly blue without suggestion of purple or turquoise. I'VE FOUND IT! Diamine Royal Blue seems to meet this criteria.

 

Yes, I'm still going to use all the other blue inks in my collection.

[Stephen-I-am]

I just put in an order for Yard-O-Led royal blue. I understand it's the same ink as Diamine's royal blue.

 

Stephen

[Tournevis]

Pervenche is a flower. It's a periwinckle.

[cowdad]

On the usenet the language--unless some other language is specified for a forum--the language everybody uses is English. That is, everybody except the French. The French write in French in forums where the standard language in English.

 

Herbin can call its inks whatever they please. And its up to me, I guess, to find out what that names or to not find out what that names. And then to order or not order the ink.

 

After having purchases one bottle or Herbin ink and after having received about a half dozen vials of samples of Herbin ink, I've concluded that it's not worth it to look up the names, much less to order any Herbin inks.

 

But if it were me selling something in France, I'd be more interested in making money and making sure the labels were in French than I would be in promoting English. Principles are one thing but cash is another.

 

If I thought anything of the ink, yeah, I'd look up the names. I don't care if the labels are in French or English or Russian or Chinese or if they're giving it away for free, I don't want any of it.

[RLTodd]

.....

 

But if it were me selling something in France, I'd be more interested in making money .......

......

 

Mark Twain said something about it once, but I don't have the quote at hand ......... As far as I can figure it out, the French are not particularly interested in that. I don't know why, but the story of Peugeot / Renault / Citroen in American kind of sums it up.

 

J. Herbin makes nice ink, that behaves well, in pretty colors. Their imports to American seem to be an after thought and of no particular interest to the home office.

[captnemo]

Periwinkles come in colors ranging from a pretty purple, to pinkish, to light blue, to royal blue. The kind I grew up with are these:

 

http://mgonline.com/periwinkle01.jpg

 

But I like the blue color of this ink and the shading I see. Very nice indeed! Thanks for the example.

[sam]

thx for the great review

[cowdad]

.....

 

But if it were me selling something in France, I'd be more interested in making money .......

......

 

Mark Twain said something about it once, but I don't have the quote at hand ......... As far as I can figure it out, the French are not particularly interested in that. I don't know why, but the story of Peugeot / Renault / Citroen in American kind of sums it up.

 

J. Herbin makes nice ink, that behaves well, in pretty colors. Their imports to American seem to be an after thought and of no particular interest to the home office.

 

The biggest market in the world is of no particular interest to the home office? They're making their ink as a hobby?

 

The truth is I would look up the names of their inks if I thought anything at all of the 6 or 7 or so of their inks I've sampled. It's just way too washed out compared with PR or Noodler's or even Diamine.

[saintsimon]

....

 

The biggest market in the world is of no particular interest to the home office? They're making their ink as a hobby?

...

 

J. Herbin belongs to a bigger group (logos and years of foundation from Herbin website)

 

http://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/Herbin_logo.jpghttp://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/1670.jpg

 

http://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/GLalo_logo.gifhttp://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/1920.jpg

http://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/Exacompta_logo.jpghttp://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/1928.jpg

http://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/Clairefontaine_logo.jpghttp://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/1858.jpg

http://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/Quovadis_logo.jpghttp://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/1954.jpg

http://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/Brause-calligraphie_logo.jpghttp://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/1850.jpg

http://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/Mignon_logo.jpghttp://www.jherbin.fr/images/illustr/1855.jpg

 

They have obviously the distribution channels, but may regard the "biggest market in the world" as actually a rather small and maybe shrinking one regarding fountain pen related stuff.

 

The weak dollar erodes profits on imported goods in the US, makes the market less interesting.

 

Also, a market size has many factors, e.g. population (US 300 Million; EU 489 Million).

Anyway, my impression is, their French-only naming belongs to their brand image.

Edited October 16, 2007 by saintsimon

[RLTodd]

........ if I thought anything at all of the 6 or 7 or so of their inks I've sampled. It's just way too washed out compared with PR or Noodler's or even Diamine.

 

(1) J. Herbin has been making ink for over 300 years.

 

(2) Fountain pen ink has traditionaly been dilute.

 

(3) All the pen makers who also make ink make it diluted (Parker Penman was a short lived exception).

 

(4) I don't have access to sales figures, but I am pretty sure most of the ink purchased is the traditional type you refer to as "washed out."

 

(5) This seems to be the first time in history when people have had so many choices in ink.

 

(6) I find the undiluted saturated inks difficult to wash out of my pens. I do not see this as a good feature.

 

(7) To me, using the highly dye saturated inks look like a rollerball was used.

 

(8) Although I like J. Herbin inks, they are over priced in the States so I use other inks. If the price was the same I would probably buy the J. Herbin in a couple of instances.

 

 

 

 

[cowdad]

The weak dollar erodes profits on imported goods in the US, makes the market less interesting.

 

 

The weak dollar doesn't effect Herbin's profits in any way. All that means is more dollars for the same ink, dollars Herbin can exchange for Euros. A weak dollar means that goods imported to the United States cost more dollars in the United States. Herbin doesn't drop the cost of it's ink because the dollar is weak.

 

I don't know why I'm even typing this because I don't much care. If some people think it's cool or whatever that Herbin thumbs its nose at the U.S. market, that's fine too. I doubt that would be fine with stockholders, but I imagine Herbin is closely held.

[saintsimon]

The weak dollar erodes profits on imported goods in the US, makes the market less interesting.

 

 

The weak dollar doesn't effect Herbin's profits in any way. All that means is more dollars for the same ink, dollars Herbin can exchange for Euros. A weak dollar means that goods imported to the United States cost more dollars in the United States. Herbin doesn't drop the cost of it's ink because the dollar is weak.

...

 

That's not working the way you describe: the prices can't be adapted to exchange rate changes easily. The prices have to remain competitive, after all. Manufacturing costs in Euro-Zone countries remain the same, while the market price in US$-markets can hardly been adapted accordingly to the weakening US$, and it had weakend considerably in the last five years.

 

You seem to be unaware of what a PIA it has become for European manufacturers to sell their products in the US or other US$-markets.

The European car manufacturers (maybe except the super-luxury ones) already have to sell their cars cheaper in the US than in Europe, and often make hardly a profit or even accept losses there, like Volkswagen did, to stay in the US market.

Airbus has a hard time competing with Boeing US$-prices, as airplanes are generally sold in US$.

Large companies can plan ahead and can organize some exchange-rate buffering tools in the financial markets, but even that doesn't work for prolonged periods.

[Parker Quink Turquoise]

Bleu Pervenche along with Parker Quink Turquoise and Sheaffer Peacock Blue are my favourite turquoise inks.

 

Bleu Pervenche is much more turquoise than shown in the scan above.