The following plates, which are exact photographs of steel and copper engraving, present several styles of script, Old English, and shaded and plain Roman faces, but do not represent more than a few sizes, and those the most common.
[Illustration: Type styles and sizes for invitations]
The engraved card invitation for a luncheon is usually worded as follows:
_Mrs. Everetts S. Sinclair requests the pleasure of your company at Luncheon on Tuesday, February nineteenth at one o'clock Hotel Willard_
The dinner invitation is identical, except that for "Luncheon" is substituted "Dinner," and the hour is usually half after seven or eight o'clock. To this, or to any other dining invitation, may be added in the lower left-hand corner the words "Please reply," or, "The favor of a reply is requested."
The party invitation may take either of the two following forms:
_Mrs. Harold Harmon Williams requests the pleasure of your company at a dancing party to be given at the Glendale Country Club Wednesday evening, December the twenty-ninth from eight until eleven o'clock_
_Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Fairfield Watson request the pleasure of_
_company at The Somerset Club on the evening of Friday the ninth of February from nine until one o'clock Dancing and Bridge 95 Jackson Boulevard_
The blank invitation is very convenient, as it may be sent out at short notice, and is definite and personal. The following is a form which lends itself to any one of the usual kinds of home entertainment:
_Mr. and Mrs. St. John Ambrose Lockwood request the pleasure of_
When, on an engraved invitation of any sort, be it wedding or dinner or any other, a blank line or lines are left for the insertion of the name of the guest, there is danger that, unless this is done with great care and by an able penman, the beauty of the invitation be ruined, and therefore its cost thrown away. For that reason a wholly engraved invitation is perhaps better, unless the work of addressing them and inserting the name is to be done by a professional penman. Of course, when this is done and well done, there is a personal touch, a suggestion of individual welcome, which can be gained in no other way, and which the wholly engraved invitation lacks.