A very recent purchase. I am not quite sure about the age of this item. It looks like it was supplied to Post Offices or Goverment agencies by the Crown mark and HMSO stock code. There are stoneware bottles that once held the liquid ink with the HMSO marks in what looks like a normal label. I intend to do as the instructions suggest, but with distilled water. Maybe weigh the powder and make a portion of it to see what it looks like. I am assuming this ink is a very fine dye powder. No iron-gall content. What do any members here know? Just wondering if the powder is likely to be usable.