Indian Ink

Synonyms:

Indian Ink, Chinese Ink, Japanese Ink, Encre De Chine, Chinesische Tusche

This ink has been prepared in China for at least 2,000 years. It consists essentially of a very fine lamp-black, associated with gelatin, and scented with musk, camphor, cloves, or rose-water. The lamp-black employed is derived from the imperfect combustion of oil or of pine-wood. The oils chiefly used are those of Sesamum indi-cum, Cannabis sativa, and Dryandria cordata; but in some factories rape-oil, bean-oil, or the oil of Gleditschia sinensis is employed. According to the treatise of Chen-ki-suen, which was written a.d. 1398, these oils are burnt in small earthenware lamps in the presence of a limited supply of moist air. The smoke is collected in earthenware conical covers; from these the condensed soot is removed at short intervals, care being taken to preserve those portions only which are free from tarry products. The soot is finally sifted, and reduced to an extremely fine powder. Lac-resin, rock-oil, as well as many kinds of wood, have been employed for the preparation of this carbonaceous basis of China ink in different parts of the empire, and at different times. It would appear that from all of these combustibles, if due care be taken, an excellent product may be obtained.

The next step in the manufacture consists in the incorporation of the soot, prepared as above described, with the necessary amount of size. The size employed should be made from a mixture of clean fish-glue and parchment-size; this is thoroughly mixed, while warm, with the fine soot. The paste thus formed is made into balls, which are heated for some time at the temperature of boiling water, and then fashioned roughly into sticks. These are subjected to repeated blows - some hundreds, at least - from a hammer; they are re-heated occasionally during this operation, in order to prevent them from becoming hard. The perfume, consisting of musk and camphor, mixed with a little rose-water, is incorporated with the mass. The material, after further pounding and beating, may then be pressed into the wooden moulds which are to give it its final form. A tedious process of drying follows next, the sticks of ink being finally packed in the ash of rice-straw frequently renewed. After the removal of adhering ash, the sticks are cleaned, gilt or otherwise ornamented, and polished with an oily brush.

If the soot used in the manufacture of this ink be contaminated with tarry or empyreumatic matters, it yields a brownish-black product; the purer and the finer the state of division of the carbon, the more intense is the black, and the more neutral are the greys which it yields on dilution with water, or by admixture with opaque white pigments.

There are many qualities of this ink made in China. The best kinds are hard and homogeneous; they show a lustrous black fracture, and, when rubbed with water, do not give rise to the separation of any curdy particles. Those having, in tint with water, a bluish or violet tinge are the most esteemed; the pure black come next, and the brownish or yellowish black last.

A stick of Indian ink should be rubbed on the palette, in straight lines, backwards and forwards. A very convenient ink-slab for this purpose forms part of the fittings of the Japanese writing-case or box, called 'suzuri-bako.' It consists of an oblong block of dark slate, in which a sloping cavity has been hollowed out. The slight 'tooth,' or roughness of the surface, greatly helps the rubbing-down of the ink. A strong wash of this ink, on sized paper, should not be affected, when once dry, by having water brushed freely over it. Bluish-black and pure black Indian ink is permanent under prolonged exposure to sunlight or impure air; but the brownish varieties become paler, less brown, more neutral, by the action of light. Like most carbonaceous matters, Indian ink occasionally tends to absorb to a small extent some of the organic pigments which may be brought into contact with it in the process of colouring a drawing.

Indian ink is available for tempera-painting, but cannot be used with oil.

Indian ink has been imitated with fair success in France. The chief difficulty in preparing it seems to lie in the preparation of a suitable gelatinous medium with which to mix the purified lamp-black. A size prepared from washed fish-glue (by partial precipitation with tannin, and subsequent solution of the precipitate in more size) affords a good binding material. The size, in true Chinese ink, forms a very large part of the total weight, varying from one-fourth to over one-third; but the European imitations rarely contain as much. Japanese ink is generally inferior to Chinese.

Chinese amateurs sometimes form collections of rare and old kinds of Chinese ink, occasionally giving for sticks bearing the marks of renowned makers not less than their weight in gold. Such specimens are prized for their rarity, not on account of any special merits as pigments which they may possess; and a Chinese ink collector regards it as an unpardonable offence to moisten any of his specimens with a view to testing their quality.