La Couronne de Comte - Marquis de Dangeau Green

[namrehsnoom]

La Couronne du Comte – Marquis de Dangeau Green

The Dutch pen boutique “La Couronne de Comte (LCDC)“ is a well-known player in the fountain pen world. Founded in 2008, their Tilburg shop and accompanying webshop offer a wide range of fountain pens, inks and other office paraphernalia. Recently, LCDC has released a small number of fountain pen inks. From their Nobless Oblige collection comes this Marquis de Dangeau Green.

 

The ink’s name refers to Philippe de Courcillon, Marquess of Dangeau (1638-1720). He was a French courtier, officer and memorialist under Louis XIV. The colour of the ink is inspired by the depiction of the Marquis in a Hyacinthe Rigaud painting from 1702. This specific shade of green is present in the rich robe worn by Monsieur de Courcillon.

At its heart, this is a yellow-green ink with plenty of yellow in the mix. Even though it is a lighter colour, the ink remains very readable in finer nibs. It’s also a very heavy shader – too much so for my taste. With dry pens, the combination of light colour and fairly extreme shading makes for a bad combination. I really recommend wet pens and broader nibs for this ink. Due to the more saturated line, the colour of the ink gets much more expressive and the shading becomes a lot softer. Marquis de Dangeau Green really must be matched with wet pens & broad nib. Used this way, the ink provides some wonderful aesthetics. Love it!

 

The chromatography shows a complex mix of dyes – light-blue, yellow, and rose. And this combination of dyes works remarkably well. The chroma looks quite similar to Rohrer & Klingner’s Alt-Goldgrün, but this LCDC ink is much more yellow-leaning. From the bottom part of the chroma, you can already deduce that most dyes detach from the paper when it comes into contact with water. This is not a water-resistant ink.

 

To show you the impact of saturation on the ink’s look & feel on paper, I made some scribbles where I really saturated portions of a piece of 52 gsm Tomoe River paper with ink. This gives you a good idea of what the ink is capable of in terms of colour range. LCDC’s Marquis de Dangeau has a fairly extreme contrast range, from wispy light green to a fairly dark yellow green. This translates to harsh shading, especially when used in dry pens that lean more towards the left side of the saturation spectrum. With wet pens, your writing moves more towards the saturated part of the spectrum, and shading becomes much softer and certainly more beautiful. With the heavy saturation, the rose undertones also rise a bit to the surface, adding some interesting complexity to the ink’s colour.

 

Technically, the ink felt a bit dry-writing in my Lamy Safari test pens and produced too light a line, with shading that is way too heavy. This is clearly visible in the quotes below, that are written with a dry M-nib Lamy Safari. The sweet spot for this ink is the broader nib and/or wet pen – as evident in the paper names and quote source lines.

In the writing samples below, I use my typical variety of different paper types. This gives you a good feel for what the ink is capable of. On each scrap of paper, I show you:

• An ink swab, made with a cotton Q-tip
• 1-2-3 pass swab, to show increasing saturation
• An ink scribble made with an M-nib Safari fountain pen
• The name of the paper used, written with a B-nib Lamy Safari
• A small text sample, written with the M-nib Lamy Safari
• Source of the quote, with a Pelikan M cursive italic nib
• Drying times of the ink on the paper, with the M-nib Lamy Safari

 

I’ve also added a photo to give you another view on the ink. Scanned images and photos often capture different aspects of the ink’s colour & contrast. That’s why I present them both. In this case, the photo captures the ink's shading best, although it looks too yellow. The scan exaggerates the shading, and looks a tiny bit too green in the swabs.  

 

Marquis de Dangeau looks good on both white and cream-coloured paper. With hard-surface paper, the shading tends to be stronger, which detracts from the overall looks. This ink works best with paper of low to medium hardness. Drying times are in the 10 second range, climbing to 20 seconds on hard-surface paper. With low quality paper, there is a just-visible amount of feathering and quite some see-through. Bleed-through is limited though, and mostly there on the horrible Moleskine paper. Overall, a well-behaving ink.

Writing with different nib sizes
The picture below shows the effect of nib sizes on the writing. Marquis the Dangeau can handle all nib-sizes but looks at its best in broader nibs and with wet-writing pens. I love the way it looks in my Pelikan M205 Demonstrator which sports a gold M cursive italic nib.

 

Related inks
To show off related inks, I use my nine-grid format, with the currently reviewed ink at the center. This format shows the name of related inks, a saturation sample, a 1-2-3 swab and a water resistance test – all in a very compact format. This ink from La Couronne du Comte looks unlike my other yellow greens. It has some of the DNA from R&K Alt-Goldgrün, but with more yellow in the mix.

 

Inkxperiment – Wolf Moon
As a personal challenge, I try to create interesting drawings using only the ink I’m reviewing. I really enjoy these inkxperiments, that are such a fun extension of the hobby. And they are excellent for showcasing all the colour range nuances that are present in the ink.

Inspiration for this inkxperiment comes from the now fast-approaching full moon of January – also known as the Wolf Moon. This full moon was named the “Wolf Moon” by Native American tribes for the wolves that would howl during winter nights, communicating with their pack and to protect their territory. The spiritual meaning of the Wolf Moon is a reminder that there is an unseen connection to your own “pack” that is worth recognizing and honoring. The inkxperiment is a direct and literal translation of the Wolf Moon concept.

 

I started with an A4 sheet of HP photo paper and painted in the background with heavily water-diluted ink, applied through a piece of kitchen paper to create the texture. Next, I painted in the full moon, with a tiny amount of bleach added afterward. I then used multiple water/ink mixes and a triangular potato stamp to add the trees. To complete the drawing, I added the wolf silhouette, popping out from the winter woods and howling at the moon. The resulting piece shows quite well what can be achieved with this yellow-green ink in a more artistic context.

 

Inkxpired – computational art
I love experimenting with pen/ink/paper and have added another layer as part of the hobby. I’m exploring computational art, inspired by the ink drawings I do during ink reviews. Another fun offshoot of the hobby… and all that starting with a few drops of dye-coloured water on paper.

For this computational derivation, I tried to create more of a winter-feel. I did a square cut-out of the inkxperiment and applied a filter that highlights the moon. Next, I used a pixel sort filter on the trees, which creates the winter woods effect. I finally changed the tone of the picture to shift to a more cold-looking green. I quite like the end result, which makes for a great New Year’s card.

 

Conclusion
La Couronne du Comte Marquies de Dangeau Green (quite a mouthful) is a really nice-looking yellow green, that works best with broad nibs and/or wet pens. A lovely colour, and one with beautiful shading (if you avoid dry pens). Also, a wonderful ink to draw with, and one that I enjoyed a lot.
 

Technical test results on Rhodia N° 16 notepad paper, written with Lamy Safari, M-nib

 

 

Back-side of writing samples on different paper types
 

 

[LizEF]

3 minutes ago, namrehsnoom said:

It’s also a very heavy shader – too much so for my taste.

And I love the extreme shading from your Safari M in the quotes.  (I probably wouldn't like it if I had to read a whole page of it, but I do like the sight of it.)

 

And, as is often the case, I really like the computational version of the artwork - the tree effect is great, and the background in this one is very cool.  Thank you for teaching us about the Wolf Moon!

 

And thank you for yet another very comprehensive review!  Happy New Year and Wolf Moon, @namrehsnoom!

[yazeh]

Great review @namrehsnoom

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of this colour. 

It is also my understanding that La Couronne du Comte filed for bankruptcy. Which is sad. 

I took the liberty to post the painting in question from his Wikipedia page, for those interested.  I hope you don't mind. 

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, yazeh said:

I took the liberty to post the painting...

Do you suppose he only wore that get-up for the painting?  Or was this his every-day outfit?  I mean, how does a person move in that pile of fluff?  It must weigh almost as much as he does!   Meanwhile, that hair - he could be in an 80s hair band!

[yazeh]

38 minutes ago, LizEF said:

Do you suppose he only wore that get-up for the painting?  Or was this his every-day outfit?  I mean, how does a person move in that pile of fluff?  It must weigh almost as much as he does!   Meanwhile, that hair - he could be in an 80s hair band!

I'm assuming his Brian May look is thanks to a wig. As for his "costume", for the painting it's like the family photos where everyone dressed to the nines and went to see the photograph. It wasn't like nowadays, when people would capture images at the most unflattering moments. I am glad that we are not subject to Marquis' Instagram feed

 

[LizEF]

1 minute ago, yazeh said:

As for his "costume", for the painting it's like the family photos where everyone dressed to the nines and went to see the photograph.

I hope so for his sake - can you imagine trying to move around in all that fabric?

 

2 minutes ago, yazeh said:

I am glad that we are not subject to Marquis' Instagram feed

  I'm sure he would have had an assistant to take care of it and make his life look perfect in every way.

[namrehsnoom]

5 hours ago, yazeh said:

Great review @namrehsnoom

I have to admit, I'm not a fan of this colour. 

It is also my understanding that La Couronne du Comte filed for bankruptcy. Which is sad. 

Thank you. Glad you liked it, even if the colour isn’t your thing.

 

I didn’t know that the LCDC shop had to throw the towel into the ring. Sad to hear that… My first few ink purchases came from them.

 

[Sailor Kenshin]

Beautiful.  Love the chroma, and your painting.  Thanks for the review!

[A Smug Dill]

@namrehsnoom Thanks for another great review, this time for an ink that has attained ‘unobtainium’ status!

 

4 hours ago, namrehsnoom said:

I didn’t know that the LCDC shop had to throw the towel into the ring. Sad to hear that…

 

Yeah, I think it did so in August, when the ‘malfunction’ in checkout function on LCdC's online shop was first announced.

 

 

[DrDebG]

Great review!  Thank you for doing it!  

 

As with Yazeh, I did a quick Wikipedia search on the Marquis and found this entertaining little excerpt: 

 

"Dangeau willingly lent his pen to the king and his entourage. The abbé de Choisy relates a time when Louis XIV asked him to compose his letters to Louise de la Vallière, and she asked him to perform the same service to reply to the king. The abbé relates the epilogue : 'He thus created the letters and their responses ; and that lasted for a year, until La Vallière, pouring out her heart, confessed to the king, who it was that was freely lending her so much of her wit, the best part of which she owed to their mutual confidant, whose discretion they admired. The king, on his part confessed that he had had the same idea.'"  Wikipedia 2022

 

An interesting color to choose for a ghost writer of royal "correspondence". 

[yazeh]

5 hours ago, namrehsnoom said:

Thank you. Glad you liked it, even if the colour isn’t your thing.

But I enjoyed your inkexperiment

 

5 hours ago, namrehsnoom said:

 

I didn’t know that the LCDC shop had to throw the towel into the ring. Sad to hear that… My first few ink purchases came from them.

 

Yep. It's sad when our "first" shops close. Another one was seitz-kreuznach. I really liked that company too...

[senzen]

Looked at himself in the mirror and exclaimed: Parfait.

[mizgeorge]

I only got one from this series before the demise of LCDC - the others were due to be in one of the shipments that never arrived. Shame, I quite like the colour, and could see it being useful for drawing with.

 

Thank you as always @namrehsnoom for a fab review and some lovely artwork.