Is this the usual for MB ink?

[Sailor Kenshin]

To have Japanese writing on the bottle? Thought I'd ask the experts.

One inkwell, no box.

[earthdawn]

Yea.... I hove 2 bottles and they both have that writting on them.

One bottle has West Germany on it and it still has that writing on it.

[Pterodactylus]

I think it depends where you buy it and for which market it was labeled (export).

My Oyster Grey does not have it.
It seems to be an older bottle, mine has a different cap (with facets and a silver ring around the flake)
And mine is produced already in Austria not Germany anymore.

Are you concerned about the writing in different languages?

[peterpen53]

They all do. Probably Chinese as well. The box of the Jonathan Swift ink also has cyrillic lettering on it, so probably Russian.
Probably important markets for MB, so no surprise. Actually I'm surprised they don't have arabic lettering.

[Pterodactylus]

If a bottle have "West Germany" on it then you can consider it already as vintage, at least about 23 years old.
But this does not mean that the ink is not good anymore.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Thanks for the info, everyone. The Japanese writing would be a plus for me, aaaaannnnd I simply want one of the round-end, older style MB ’shoes.'