Posts Tagged ‘J. Herbin’

Silver and gold: a companion for Rouge Hematite

Posted February 9, 2012 by
in Product Reviews | 12 comments »

Two thoughtful readers tipped us off to this thread on the Fountain Pen Network about J. Herbin’s special edition anniversary ink, Rouge Hematite.

After discussing the merits of gold flecks suspended in red ink, one poster suggested a possible companion color: blue with silver flecks (bleu d’argent?), an idea that other posters seemed to like, too. Many have apparently emailed J. Herbin to let them know, but since I thought it was a cool suggestion, it occurred to me I could gather additional feedback here and possibly give France an extra nudge.

What do you think?

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Desk pen, pocket pen

Posted September 28, 2011 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 2 comments »

I just got a new pen — a Faber-Castell E-Motion that’s the happy consequence of needing to use some frequent flyer miles before they expired. I’ve inked it up with Cacao du Bresil and have been writing with it all morning.

Pictures and thoughts will follow once I put it to more use than just scribbling, but in the meantime, first impressions have me wondering about desk pens and pocket pens. With its chrome cap, this thing weighs nearly 2 ounces, as opposed to the quarter ounce of the Pilot rollerballs I prefer when I need to write on cheap paper. My other fountain pens are nowhere near that heavy, either, I guess because they’re mostly entry-level plastic models. (Even my steel-capped Pelikano is light!)

At any rate, the E-Motion is obviously going to be a pen that takes its position on my desk and doesn’t move much from room to room. It’s exactly the sort of fountain pen I never thought I’d want — the sort of pen that a younger, snider me would have called unnecessary and officious. Of course, now that it’s come into my possession, I’m far from unhappy to have it.

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Ink bloopers

Posted May 25, 2011 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 1 comment »

I tossed the packaging on my bottle of Rouge Hematite soon after it arrived in the mail, but took a picture of a sample at the National Stationery Show to confirm what an eagle-eyed reader recently pointed out: “rince” should be “rinse,” of course, in the last line of the paragraph in gold.

Unlike our paper products, which are made in the U.S., our inks are imported from France, which causes some occasional “Lost in Translation” moments.

According to our product manager, Cecilia, we caught the mistake earlier this year and passed it on to J. Herbin’s French headquarters. Unfortunately, they’d just launched a reprint of the boxes and could only correct it for the next batch.

Cognates!

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1670: The future of a limited edition

Posted January 31, 2011 by
in Announcements, Pens, Paper & People | 35 comments »

Last year, J. Herbin introduced a color called rouge hematite in honor of their 340th anniversary. It was created as a limited edition, and it did very well for us over the course of the year. Now that it’s 2011, we’re fielding questions about its continued availability.

If you’re a fan of rouge hematite, or you haven’t gotten the chance to try it yet, there’s good news: the ink will be in production at least through 2012. After that, we’re not sure. As you might have guessed given its name, the intention was originally to make, well, a limited edition. If people keep asking for it, though, we’ll definitely consider adding it to the permanent line-up.

What do you think? Should limited editions truly be limited?

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Rouge Hematite: Ink, blood, and sailors

Posted April 29, 2010 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 3 comments »

Image via Biffybeans

As I mentioned yesterday, the word “hematite” is derived from the Greek word for “blood,” which matches the earthy red tones of J. Herbin’s new anniversary ink.

It also points to some nautical associations: according to legend, sailors wrote with blood whenever ink was not available. I can’t seem to find any further information about this idea (the words “ink” and “blood” and “sailors” turn up a lot of stuff about tattoos; there’s also Sailor brand ink), but perhaps others have heard of it?

J. Herbin was a sailor — according to the Herbin website, he brought back new formulas for sealing wax from his many trips to India, and made ink for Louis XIV. The drawings that adorn the Rouge Hematite box were inspired by his life:

• The ship, anchor, and palm tree stand for navigation and discovery
• The crown is a reference to the red sealing wax that was used in correspondence with the royal courts in Europe

Interesting stuff, eh?

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The inspiration behind J. Herbin’s Rouge Hematite

Posted April 28, 2010 by
in Announcements, Pens, Paper & People | 3 comments »

I had the privilege recently of asking Laurent Nusse, CEO of J. Herbin, a couple of questions via email about Rouge Hematite, the much-heralded red ink that was created to mark the company’s 340th anniversary.

Why red? Blue is the most common color, but Laurent said the company felt it was too conventional for an anniversary ink. They asked a few customers what colors would interest them, and a lot of people mentioned red; since Herbin’s original logo is red, the choice seemed obvious.

Why the name “hematite”? Hematite is a mineral that can be red, and the word is derived from the Greek word for “blood.” Since the ink has a dark red earth tone, Herbin felt that it matched the hematite association.

What’s up with the wax on the cap? It’s reminiscent of the way French grand crus are packaged, where sealing wax proves the authenticity and origin of the wine. Speaking of which, I should note that the company is apparently working on a new cap that’s sealed with stronger wax. (The 300 bottles we currently have in stock all have the old, fragile wax that’s been frustrating users and reviewers, unfortunately. UPDATE: The new bottles should be available in June.)

More lore and information to come…

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Cole’s cursive

Posted April 7, 2010 by
in Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People | 1 comment »

Karen tipped me off to this lovely set of doodles from reader Cole Wardell, whose blog, The Orchard, features lots more gorgeous artwork and plenty of pen and paper musings.

I love the interplay between the formal script and the informal blotches of ink… meanwhile, be sure to check out the full-sized image here (or here, shot from a different angle).

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Guest post: Waterproof inks

Posted March 22, 2010 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 1 comment »

Guest blogger Kate Marshall is back this morning with a good subject for the accident prone: waterproof ink.

So one time, I was transcribing notes and accidentally knocked over my glass of water. Yes, all over my notebook. Luckily, my notes were okay because I’d written them with a waterproof fountain-pen ink: Noodler’s Black.

Yes, such a thing exists. Recently, I did a quick and dirty test of three waterproof Noodler’s inks, a J. Herbin fountain pen ink, and two waterproof J. Herbin inks to see how well they hold up against liquid abuse.

The inks I tested were:

I. Noodler’s (recently purchased during the 2010 Philadelphia Pen Show)

1. Black
2. Bad Blue Heron (a new turquoise color)
3. Old Manhattan Black (exclusive to Fountain Pen Hospital)

II. J. Herbin (provided by Exaclair)

1. Perle Noire (not specifically labeled waterproof but more on that later)
2. Encre Authentique (“Lawyer’s ink”)
3. Encre Chine (“China ink.” Also can be known as “India ink”)

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More fields

Posted March 3, 2010 by
in Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

We just got a couple new images from Christian Skagen’s “Horizontal Fields” series, which we blogged about last week (with my apologies for having flubbed the title; sorry — it’s “Horizontal Fields,” not “Horizontal Lines” as I first wrote).

Anyway, click through to see some pieces Christian made with J. Herbin Rose Tendresse and Bleu Azur and a Pelikan M250 EF:

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l’Encre des Vaisseaux (The Ink of Ships)

Posted February 18, 2010 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 4 comments »

I recently had an email from my friend, Kass Speerly of The Ink Sampler, asking me about J. Herbin’s ink –  l’Encre des Vaisseaux – The Ink of Ships. “I’ve seen the logo for the bottles of this ink before,” she wrote, “but never the ink. I assume it is no longer produced, but I am interested in some information about it, such as what the color was, what it’s primary use was intended for, when it was produced and when it went out of production. Also, curiously, could it ever be produced again.”

Those are all good questions for which I don’t have a ready answer.  But I will try to find out over the course of this year.  Some information may be gleaned from the collective memory of the J. Herbin staff in France.  I also plan to add a Wiki on historical J. Herbin inks to jherbin.com, so people anywhere in the world can contribute what they know or have discovered so we all can benefit. 

The one piece of information I have about The Ink of Ships is that it was created in M. Herbin’s workshop prior to 1700.  The rest is my conjecture…

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