Clarendon

Also called Ionic

A slab serif with the join softened: the serif is heavy but curves into the stem instead of meeting it square.

Clarendon: a founder's specimen setting body text in which the emphasised words are Clarendon, its serifs heavy but curving into the stems, beside the lighter roman around them. — Brevier Clarendon on Long Primer Body, a Fann Street Foundry specimen, Fox & Reed.
Public domain
Public domain: A nineteenth century founder's specimen page, out of copyright by age; the file's own page records it as public domain, credited to the Internet Archive.
Cropped to the text block. Retrieved 2026-09-10.

Near it

Slab serif

Transitional

Bracket

What it is made of

bracket	present and pronounced	the single difference from a plain slab
contrast	slight but real

Where it came from

Cut by Robert Besley at the Fann Street Foundry in 1845, and among the first types registered under Britain's ornamental designs legislation, which lapsed and let everyone copy it anyway.

Sources

Clarendon, Fann Street Foundry not read