Mont Blanc - Petit Prince Red Fox

Mont Blanc have released four inks in the Petit Prince range.  Some might argue only three, this ink, sand of the desert (brown) and the recently released Petit Prince and planet (rose burgundy).  I say four as I include the Homage to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,  Encre du Desert ink as de Saint-Exupéry wrote Le Petit Prince.

The Little Prince meets the fox in chapter 21 of the book.  The fox is a minor but very important character in the story as he teaches the Prince things that are then taught to the Narrator and by extension to us as the reader.  The thrust of the chapter when they meet is about the fox asking the prince to tame him and the Prince coming to an understanding as to what this means to be tamed. The lessons are about making friends and establishing relationships, that good relationships take time and work and it is our relationships that make the world around us significant and meaningful.

The packaging is the standard limited edition Mont Blanc box of outer hard sleeve with a drawer inside holding the ink bottle. The bottle is square glass and looks like crystal, the Mont Blanc logo is on the cap.   I was sent a sample of this ink so can not tell you what it looks like in the bottle.  In my sample vial it looks a very dark red.

Chromatography was a combination of orangey reds and some brown

To me the  col-o-ring and Tomoe river swatches revealed an ink that is confused.  Is it red or orange or brown?  

Col-o-ring

Tomoe river paper

I was trying to colour match the ink to a pen for the writing and ended up using a Birmingham Pen Co 6th avenue pen in roman candle.  The pen has a medium nib.

On copy paper it is a light brown or a dark orange depending on your preference.  There is a little shading, no feathering, a lot of show through and it was very quick to dry between 5 and 10 seconds.

On Tomoe it was a similar colour but the shading was obvious and I guess this is why the ink is popular.  The dry time was very long, I think the cheap paper soaks up the ink here it seems to sit on the paper until it dries.

On Rhodia you can appreciate the orange undertones a little more, there is still some shading and though not as quick drying as on cheap paper it still beats Tomoe river paper.  Here, 99% dry at 15 secs.  

This is not the ink for me.  I was thinking I wish I had bought some when I started this review but rapidly realised that if I had I would never use it – its not in the colour range I like.  I find it confused as a colour.
As with all Mont Blanc inks it is not cheap but still good quality.  I usually buy directly from Mont Blanc but they are not advertising this ink any longer, it is still available from other online retailers.
In summary -
Saturation – medium
Shading – yes but paper dependent
Sheen – no
Shimmer - no
Flow - good
Nib dry-out - none
Nib creep - none
Start-up – Excellent 
Feathering - no
Drying – the better the quality of paper the slower the drying
Cleaning - good
Water resistance – not sold as waterproof but not bad