The Search for Persian Rose

[junglejim]

An ultra-rare ink. An ink that no-one knows the absolute 'true' color of. Yep-Yep! That's something I've been researching actively over the past month. My 'hypothesis' is that Persian Rose is indeed a lovely pink with undertones of purple. FPN member Univer posted in March 2008 a picture and swab and noted that his bottle had an air tight seal due to the paper liner sticking. FPgeeks member Chrissy also posted a sample picture that was a dusty pink color, as did Jon Szanto in August 2015. An article posted December 2011 by FPN member ToasterPastry shows a picture of a swab of Persian Rose vs the original Sheaffer Skrip Permanent Red of the time (circa 1953). Also a pink color with purple undertones.

However, the major evidence is from an actual eyewitness who had used the original Persian Rose when she was a young girl back in the early 1950's.

" Guess I'm the anomaly here- I remember Persian Rose- the original thing- in its era. I was quite focussed upon my older sibling's Persian Rose... forbidden to play with it... so I played with original Peacock Blue instead but I sure 'longed' to play with that Persian Rose. I'm an old chick, so I guess my 40+ year old memory could be faulty... but I recall- not a bright magenta pink... but a truer rose, which was soft... closer to a mix of shell pink (in my monitor's picture of the sample), with the cited darker greyish rose above. Instability of an ingredient is the only possibility I can suggest, other than memory issues. By the way, we were very focussed on roses in our household... my dad cultivated 100 plantings in the back garden alone... Don't know if any of this lends to my credibility- was a fairly detail-oriented brat." ---FPN member pen2paper

She goes on to say in a later post of how she would sneak into her older sister's room to get a fill of Persian Rose for her fountain pen, even though it was forbidden.

I copied these paragraphs from pen2paper and showed it to my neighbor, who is a long-time credentialed School Psychologist for the School District we live in. The question was-- Can a child that was obsessed with a particular color of ink remember that shade accurately 40+ years later?

The answer was "Absolutely, if the child is intelligent and especially if she was exposed to all of the various pinks, whites, and red shades of color from the roses her parents grew. Her sense of color perception would be much above average."

I did some research on red dyes used during the late 1940's to early 1950's for inks and the primary one was eosin Y, which is still used today in many ink formulations. This dye has an interesting decolorization breakdown profile. At a pH of less than 5 (acidic) or pH above 8 (caustic) the dye remains stable. Between a pH of 6 to 8, the presence of oxygen causes oxidation breakdown of the red color.

Was Persian Rose bottled under slightly acidic or caustic conditions? Currently unknown, but I am aware of the fiasco when Parker developed Superchrome ink that was so acidic it destroyed the pump mechanisms of their pens. Today's inks run the gamut from low to high pH's, depending on the type of dye(s) and amount used.

In the case of Persian Rose, when an ink container is brand new, it can develop a hermetic (airtight) seal where the meeting of paper liner meets the glass due to ink exposure. When a customer gets a new bottle of ink, the first thing they do is open the bottle, to look in, try a nib test or fill. Some even sniff it. At that point, you have introduced fresh air and bacteria/yeast/fungi into the bottle. Yes, there are antimicrobial chemicals added to slow/prevent growth, but it's the oxygen you can't compensate for. Over the decades, the pH of the ink changes, and decolorization of the red dye begins. What's left are the other dyes, the purple (and other colors?) that are in so many of the posted ink samples of Persian Rose that we see today on the net. Butch (penmanila) has a beautiful example of the strong purplish red that developed in his bottle.

Chrissy had posted that the chroma of one of her Persian Rose samples were red, pink, and purples and blue towards the top. On a different sample she later posted that her chroma was predominately reds. (No pictures, unfortunately.) I would bet that the very few bottles of Persian Rose that exhibits the Pink with purple undertones were pristine NOS, never exposed to air and stored under ideal conditions, such as long forgotten in the dark bottom of a drawer or inside closet shelf.

Dusty looking was another description of the Pink color in Persian Rose. To me (and maybe some of the ink experts who post here might be able to correct me if I am mistaken) dusty means an ink that is under-saturated. Inks that are popular today have lots of color saturation, indicating very high dye loads. A highly color saturated ink also exhibits low shading, which is because of the heavy dye load. The reverse is also mostly true, under-saturated inks can show excellent shading, and under-saturated inks appear dusty looking. (I'm looking at a lot of the J. Herbin ink products.)

Finally, I put myself into the mind-set of a customer in the early 1950's. There are black inks, green inks, blue and blue-black and reds, from Sheaffer, Carter, long-time rivals Parker and Watermans. Sheaffer decides to make a special new color, a pink with very light undertones of purple, to appeal to the ladies who buy ink. A color no one else has yet (remember, we are using 1950's mindset, not 2018! ) Would a woman who has dollars to spend buy a dusty purple ink back then, or a pretty pink ink? [And I again remind you, using a 1950's mindset!! ]

Can we recreate this color? Lots of companies have tried, such as Noodler's (Shah Rose and Ottoman Rose), Private Reserve (Arabian Rose), but without an idea of what the actual color 'should' be, it's pretty hard.

I leave you with this final thought from FPN member white_lotus. " Grail inks are a chimera. A false thing to chase after. You might as well chase after unicorns and pixie dust. It's the oldest desire in human nature, to want something said to possess amazing qualities and what you can't get."

And of course my personal answer is, "So I like to tilt at windmills. Come along, Pancho," as he whistles the tune of 'The Impossible Dream' whilst riding off into the sunset.

All the Best.