Clarendon
The Fann Street Foundry’s heavy typeface of 1845 with bracketed slab serifs – for dictionaries, posters and signs.
In the early 19th century new types arose for advertising: fat faces, slab-serif Egyptians and grotesques. Clarendon, registered in 1845, combined slab serifs with curved brackets.
It was used to emphasise words in dictionaries and became common on posters and signs, not least in the American West.
Materials: Metal and wood type
Manufacture: Cast in metal for text and cut in wood in large sizes for posters.
Heavy serifs joining the stems with curved brackets.
Low contrast and large, open forms.
Often used as a bold to emphasise words.