Egyptian Antique
ATF Collection · William Schraubstädter, Mark Van Bronkhorst, Igino Marini, Ben Kiel · 2023
An expansion of Schraubstädter's Litho Antique (1910) to six weights, preserving the period eccentricities that Morris Fuller Benton deliberately smoothed away when he adapted it into Rockwell in 1931.
About
Litho Antique was issued in 1910 by the Inland Type Foundry of St. Louis, advertised as closely imitating steelplate and lithography. ATF Egyptian Antique extends that single-weight original across six weights, adding small caps and a slightly increased x-height while retaining the letterforms' antique character. The design sits squarely in the 19th-century Egyptian tradition – slab serifs associated with Victorian ephemera rather than any genuine connection to Egypt.
Classification
A Victorian-era Egyptian slab serif revived and expanded from Litho Antique (1910), with uniform stroke weight and squared serifs characteristic of the Egyptian genre that preceded Clarendon and geometric slab designs.