Vintage Waterman Carnation Red Review

January 4, 2017

I've only found one other review anywhere on this forum for this color red. I thought they did an excellent job, but I just wanted to add my own contribution to it. Mostly, I was also just really excited to get a full bottle of this ink and put it in a pen. It is very watery, and very easy to clean. I do not have a single other ink yet that is this easy and quick to clean. Basically, if I need a red ink, and I want to put it in a vintage pen that does not disassemble easily, this is the ink I will be reaching for. I keep mentioning that because it is one of my hesitations with putting ink in a pen -- I don't want it to put the pen out of commission. Also the ease of cleaning seems to be relative to the ease of how it will behave on the page. This one behaves really well. Plus .... vintage ink!

The paper is Rhodia cream 80g. I think it brings out the purple shading a little more than the white does, in my opinion. The scan seems to have captured the color I see on the page, looking at it through my monitor.

The bottle design looks almost the same as a modern Waterman bottle, which is interesting. The yellow/red box definitely marks it as vintage.

And I was really amused at the little "union made" stamp at the bottom of the box. Had to bring the loupe to it to actually read it, but it seems to have come out fine in this pic.