Private Reserve Ink has really been through the wringer over the years, passing through the hands of three separate owners and finally ending up in the hands of Yafa, the current owners/distributors of Monteverde and several other brands. One of the original boutique ink brands that existed alongside Noodler’s from the time I entered the hobby, I’ve had mixed success using Private Reserve throughout my “pen career.” When I first started out, these inks were the only option you had if you wanted highly saturated reds, greens, and blues, but those colors often came with a lot of baggage in the form of slow dry times/smearing, a tendency to stain, and at one point, a propensity to grow mold due to a formulation error. Fortunately, these issues were eventually sorted out, and the new inks exhibit none of these problems. In fact, they’re quite good.
Private Reserve DC Supershow Blue pops off the page, in the way that many inks haven’t done since Parker discontinued the Penman Sapphire.
To answer the question of “Just how good?”, during my recent visit to Anderson Pens I selected a bottle of what was once one of the highest-maintenance fountain pen inks out there: Private Reserve D.C. Supershow Blue. A saturated blue originally designed to mimic long-discontinued cult ink Parker Penman Sapphire, the old formulation of Supershow Blue was, for me, impossible to use. I found that it never dried, and would clog pens to the point that I would have to prime the feed by twisting the converter a bit any time I stopped writing for more than a day. That said, Supershow Blue is an absolutely gorgeous color, so if Yafa’s most recent take on Private Reserve rendered this color useable, it would be a huge win for everybody.
DC Supershow Blue and its characteristic red sheen - only this time no smearing!
TLDR version: The latest version of this ink is great. To test out dry time/smear resistance, I layered it onto Write Notepads dot grid paper with a folded nib dip pen, and experienced absolutely no bleedthrough or feathering. Importantly, the ink dried relatively quickly, and after a few minutes you could run a finger across the page without any smearing or stickiness whatsoever - impressive since the ink is fairly wet. The color isn’t quite a match for Parker Penman Sapphire (see the comparison in the photo below), but it stands on its own as a great “bright blue” option.
So at this year’s Chicago Pen Show, the ink testing table contained a sample of Penman Sapphire, which I compared against the new formulation of Supershow Blue. The old Penman Ink has more of a violet hue, with additional red sheen. It does, however, smear much more than the Private Reserve, even two months later.
Takeaways and Where to Buy
Given how nice my experience with this ink has been, I’m definitely looking at picking up some additional colors. Private Reserve is widely available from most pen retailers, and generally inexpensive. As I mentioned, I purchased the bottle featured in this review at Anderson Pens Chicago. Most of the standard colors are priced at $15 for 60ml, quite a good deal, with specialty inks such as the “Infinity” series and the “Pearlescent” shimmer inks commanding a slight premium. Another longtime Private Reserve favorite is “Burgundy Mist,” which I reviewed relatively recently, and I look forward to revisiting both Sherwood Green and Tanzanite, inks that were once staples of my collection.
People either love or hate the Private Reserve Ink bottles. They feature a large volume (60ml) and a wide opening for easy filling with larger pens, but these bottles do tend to spatter/spill a bit since they always ship very full. Exercise care when opening!
This post does not contain affiliate links. I was not compensated for this review, and I purchased the inks with my own funds, though I did receive a slight discount on the purchase. Many thanks to Anderson Pens for making this review possible.