Turquoise or not turquoise - the old Parker ink

[Penman57]

So, as I wrote in my introduction a few days ago, I picked up fountain pens again now that I am retired. After flights with leaking pens or ink stained fingers in meetings, I went BP only, but I can now again enjoy the beauty of the instrument and tactile experience of writing with pen and ink. Starting with my father’s Parker 21, I have been trying to find the colour - Parker turquoise - that he used in the 60ies, but of course that is no longer available. Helpful forum members already suggested a few nice alternatives, however many of these appear to me to be too much light blue in tone. When looking around on the net I also discovered that what I call turquoise may not even be turquoise, but teal. And I also cannot recall whether his old Parker ink was called “turquoise”, or just had a colour swatch on the box. So when surfing around for colour comparisons I came across this nice image of  old Parker turquoise versus other inks and to my surprise the one that comes closest is Diamine “Eau de Nil”. As far as I can recall through the mist of time, this ink really resembles very closely the colour he used, so I will try to find a bottle somewhere here in the EU. Below are pictures of my pen (before cleaning) and the colour comparison chart (credit to alhudapk.com who listed the comparison). Best regards from Switzerland. 

[welch]

Try EBay. I just saw: https://www.ebay.com/itm/276840803273?_skw=quink+turqoise+ink&itmmeta=01JKRRTNM4345TBCY49TD2F51A&hash=item4074ff6bc9:g:KdMAAOSwbP1nn9Bd&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKn4YBrqsrDy0AQ1KEOuVGQxEkYHn0j%2Fyar4Pt%2BnxEqOB1uw8HT8Da3DQ3zvB%2BcAuE54EoNWSpN4Up4byhOuTqnsWewla5PQUuTEhBWX9VB5hU6o5Ne3G94f%2FKSkiG9fnXuTjI3mWw10fJCOMZQMbgF8pyAQCcJNDA21sEqZqDcanh0iMUjGazC9SbiGeP0emBf3rUgpWOFlq0CC%2F2Eau7CInFRPcM%2FqpbcZ3W9t%2BhUg%2Fs%2BcMQ0dja4N98yYouUlioU%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR57b6pieZQ

(Parker Quink Permanent Turquoise Fountain Pen Ink: 4 cartridges + 1/2 bottle)

 

And Parker Quink Solv-x Permanent Turquoise Ink In Bottle New In Box Made In England

https://www.ebay.com/itm/144634002149?_skw=quink+turqoise+ink&itmmeta=01JKRRZ76ASN4GYWDH86CYEVKR&hash=item21acdbbae5:g:qZkAAOSwq69foYX4&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnHud%2ByEEVkGDSn0grNMhlHmyLc2ZYH%2Bd0g%2FYDl0TG9HwuOWlwjLzWww6dOjvb9Br8dIypacaPiNAminDsWSSlkA3ttY7Bc9qBIMW%2BjwBlDn7PTL0vcf%2FTxMawDlmLy42AQXuol%2Fs2S7NVIdPScFrlLt1QSFH6NNZLyfg36bngYb%2BkFXLbjbDs6febu1Cirn2u%2BTQgvBFDLIr5rufuaIBtN9QDLDmqSJDnwhSGD6hg7axeBlDgxl4r5ag9eyEwh%2BrRtQtGXbbyHGiwyOMD9ARR6Xzz9OfNH%2BkJ1KvE4JL79bQ%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6r0_JieZQ

 

 

Ans a couple offers for Permanent Turquoise cartridges.

[Penguincollector]

  A few years ago, Lamy had a Turmaline color that’s similar. I’m using it in my teal Parker 45 Deluxe and it’s a pretty close match. 

[vicpen123]

Photo of Parker Quink Permanent Turquoise Ink bottle from early 70s.

 

The ink was used for our wedding stationery at the time and both the ink and the marriage have proven

to be permanent.

 

Why it still had Solv - X is a mystery to me. Maybe someone else will know.

[Penman57]

What a nice memory to both ink and marriage!

[welch]

EBay has a few bottles of Quink Permanent Turquoise, plus some cartridges. Reasonably priced.

 

Why Solv-X in the early '70s? My (floatimg) memory tells me that Parker used Sol-X until sometime in the 90's. Certainly throuout the 1960's, when I was writing with my Parker 45's, Number One and then Number Two when I gave Number One to a girl-friend. 

[Penman57]

Update:

As mentioned in my intro and above, I have now received the old teal Parker 21, ordered from Ebay as a donator to replace to wrong color barrel on my father’s pen. The original barrel cracked and was replaced with a dark green one in the 60ies-70ies by a penshop that did not have a teal replacement. It likely irritated my dad, because he bought a new dark blue P21 shortly after and the teal/green one ended up in a drawer. The vintage teal barrel is an excellent match with the original section, so I am very happy with the result.  

 

The Diamine Eau de Nil also arrived and I bought some new Parker Quink turquoise to compare colors. So the P21 uses Diamine and I put a Quink mini cartridge in a St Dupont Plume Ultime. Writing with both to compare was good fun, but trying to take pictures that match the colors is very difficult I find. Somehow the pics are always darker versus the original.

 

Anyway, below are some pics of ink, restored P21 pen and the color comparison Diamine vs Parker Quink. And if you recall, I am trying to find the best matching turquoise with my memory of the old Parker turquoise and both are not it I am afraid. Quite possibly because my memory of the color is not accurate when looking at real examples, but I find the Diamine to be too dark and greenish versus the Quink, which I find too light and blueish. Both are nice colors though. 

 

[Penguincollector]

  I have a Parker 45 Deluxe and a regular 45 in teal and the closest color I have to it is Lamy Turmaline. I am an aficionado of turquoise and teal inks so it’s out of at least 20 bottles and about that many samples and cartridges. 

[Mercian]

On 3/11/2025 at 10:35 AM, Penman57 said:

I am trying to find the best matching turquoise with my memory of the old Parker turquoise and both are not it I am afraid. Quite possibly because my memory of the color is not accurate when looking at real examples, but I find the Diamine to be too dark and greenish versus the Quink, which I find too light and blueish. Both are nice colors though. 

 

If you are trying to find an ink that matches your memory of the old Parker Turquoise, I recommend that you start by having a look through this ↓ old thread

 

If you see any ink in there that seems as though it might be a good match,  I do recommend that you seek out several reviews of it on here....

Partly because different folks' cameras capture some shades better than others, and partly because different reviewers notice different things about the behaviour of the ink that they are reviewing.
Is the ink easy to clean out of a pen? Is it 'wet'? Is it 'dry'? Does it shade? Does it sheen? Does it feather/spread/bleed-through? Does it cause nib-creep? Etc, etc.
It is far better to find out that the ink whose colour Tempts you also behaves in ways that are 'deal breakers' for you before you buy it!

Also, I do hope that your interest is NOT piqued by the old Sheaffer Skrip Turquoise - that ink, like Parker Quink Turquoise, is now no longer produced!

I wish you the very best of luck in your Quest 

Slàinte,
M.

[Penman57]

Thank you Mercian, a very interesting link and possibly a new rabbit hole filled with turquoise inks…

 

The other think I am going to do is to try and find some old documents from my dad, hopefully in turquoise inks. Should that not work, I might try to score a vintage quink turquoise bottle as an other poster also suggested. It is not really a sentimental issue (well, a little perhaps), but rather mild annoyance that my mental picture from 40 odd years ago keeps shifting with every new turquoise I see. So there is only one way to put that to rest - find the real thing!