Anderillium Avian Series Pompadour Cotinga Burgundy - 4ml Fountain Pen Ink Sample

Hue: A deep, saturated magenta-wine. Anderillium describe it as a burgundy inspired by the plumage of an Amazonian songbird, but on my Tomoe River swatches it reads as a purple-leaning magenta rather than a red-based burgundy — closer to blackcurrant than to claret. Worth knowing before you buy if you're after a traditional wine red. Some published reviews call it a dusty or muted pink; mine is noticeably more saturated than that, so expect it to shift with pen, nib and paper. 

Shading: Present but soft. Stroke starts and thinner lines lift to a brighter pink, while pooled areas drop to a deep plum. Pleasant rather than dramatic.

Sheen: Strong olive-green sheen, and it's the main event. On Tomoe River the drop edges and any pooled ink turn a heavy moss green against the magenta — you can see it clearly in my photos. Note that sheen on this ink is very paper-dependent: at least one well-known review reported no sheen at all on other papers, so absorbent paper will likely flatten it.

Shimmer: None.

Flow: Medium.

The interesting bit: Anderillium are a small handcrafted ink maker based in Tampa, Florida, and this comes from their Avian Series — the first series they released, with eight inks each named for a bird followed by the colour. Their own story for this one is that the pompadour cotinga's flamboyant crest looks like a 1950s rockabilly hairdo — which is a lovely image, but the naming actually ran the other way round. The English ornithologist George Edwards named the bird in the 1760s after Madame de Pompadour, having seen specimens seized from a captured French ship that were said to be destined for her; he wrote that the bird was so beautiful he hoped she'd forgive him for borrowing her name. The pompadour hairstyle is named after her too. So the ink is, at several removes, named after the mistress of Louis XV. 

This is a hand-decanted 4ml sample vial from my own bottle.
Photos are my own swatches on Tomoe River Paper.
I'm a collector and I'm always happy to talk ink, so please message me if you have any questions.