Diamine - Monboddo’s Hat

Diamine Monboddo’s Hat - ink drop

Diamine Monboddo’s Hat is one of two purples created in 2019 in collaboration with the Fountain Pen UK (FPUK) Facebook group. The name has two sources of inspiration. First, Lord Monboddo was an 18th century Scottish writer and judge. Scribble Mondobbo is the pseudonym of the stationery product reviewer behind the United Inkdom blog. He’s one of the FPUK members influential in these releases, and a bit of a fanatic when it comes to purple inks. Limited in its original release, popularity pushed Diamine to add it to their standard collection.

Visually, this is a rich, saturated, slightly pinkish purple with subtle yellow undertones. In writing, the darker elements create the base color, producing a lush, dark purple stroke. This isn’t a powerful shading ink, but there’s clear color variation. It lightens in areas to subtly reveal hints of its pinkish influences. The splatter shows a wide, yellow-gold sheen edging on areas of pooling. It also comes across on some premium papers, as a light, sheen edging that adds personality to strokes.

Diamine Monboddo’s Hat - ink swatch card and drying

As a writing ink, Monboddo’s Hat is a reliable, flexible performer, across a wide range of papers. Neither wet, nor dry, it flows well and comfortably. Strokes were consistently clean and sharp on all six papers tested, with just the tiniest trace of feather on office copy. Shading was subdued, but nice on the premium papers, and even more so on office copy paper. Sheen was strongest on Rhodia, Mnemosyne (both are coated papers), and Apica (uncoated), but disappeared on office copy. Drying was consistently fast on all papers at 10-15 seconds on average.

I don’t know about the hat, but this is a very attractive purple! It’s a comfortable, versatile writing ink, and it looks great on paper. I think it can be used in any setting, too. The FPUK members and Diamine really chose well with Monboddo’s Hat!

December 2020