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This ink is made to the recipe that Jane Austen used to draft her novels. Austen's maid took this formula from Martha Lloyd's book, ‘The House Keeper’. She used good-quality English oak galls, but poorer quality beer than Isaac Newton, and added a little sugar. Her recipe is less stable and turns ‘antique brown’ over a long period of time, while Sir Isaac Newton's remains black. Initially a medium blue-grey, it darkens to a rich matte back, slightly warmer in tone than our regular Oak Gall Ink. It is made in small batches and blended to give the required consistency and strength, and is fully waterproof in 5-7 days. Permanent and lightfast, it has been steeped for several weeks and left to ‘mature’ for several more in the bottle. When used on animal skins such as vellum, the acids in the Oak Gall Ink react with collagen, effectively ‘etching’ itself into the surface, hence its permanence.