Robert Oster Berry D’Arche ($16 per 50 ml bottle) is hard color to color to describe. It’s not quite a burgundy, not really purple but its not a brown either. And if you think describing it was a challenge, photographing it was even more difficult.
Looking at the swatch card next to other colors of similar hue is probably the best way to get a ballpark of the color in perspective. Scabiosa is definitely more purply and Syrah more red. Berry D’arche is definitely more of a muted, less vibrant color than some of the other colors shown. I began to think of Berry D’arche as a sophisticated color– appropriate for work but still a little different.
I still couldn’t get away from describing it as a two-color name… red-black, purple-brown, burgundy-grape? I would drive Myke Hurley to drink an entire bottle of Merlot with my two-color names! (If you listened to Episode 252 of The Pen Addict podcast, you’ll know he was not keen on the use of two-color names for things so I’m not helping myself here.) But some colors are just in that hazy, in-between space and what can you do?
Technically, this ink color does shade but there is not much sheening, if any, that I can spot.
The fact that its one of those is-it or isn’t-it colors makes it hard to recommend. Are you looking for a color that isn’t quite burgundy or purple or red or brown or maroon or black? Then this is for you.
If we’re going to compare this ink to a wine, I believe the closest would be Petite Syrah. This is a different grape from Syrah or Shiraz, and the wine it makes is much more purple.
How about a taste -color name? Like “Bitter-Purple”? Struck me that way at first view. For “somber” writing. RT
Excellent review. I haven’t heard about this ink before.
Typo: The title should read “Berry d’Arche”, not “Berry d’Ache”.
I keep misspelling this ink. Thanks for catching that! It’s the whole Caran d’ache vs Berry d’arche thing.