Imitation jewels are repoussé upon the circlets of all these coronets, except those of Barons and Heralds. No English crowns or coronets, except those worn by the Sovereign or the Queen Consort, have any real jewels upon them.
Crowns and coronets are only officially worn in England on the occasion of the coronation, and then with the ordered coronation dress. They are put on when the crown is put upon the head of the Sovereign. But if they are held over the head of the owner it appears to be sufficient, as in Sir George Hayter's beautiful picture of the coronation of Queen Victoria, the Duchess of Cambridge is shown with a Lady-in-Waiting holding her coronet over her head. The Duchess was wearing a very handsome diamond tiara which, no doubt, she considered more becoming than her coronet.
Crowns and coronets are properly depicted without any cap within them, but when they are worn it is always over the Peer's cap, known variously as a Cap of Estate, of Maintenance, or of Dignity. The same cap is also used in many early instances as a crest-chapeau. The cap is the same for all ranks, from the Sovereign to the King-of-Arms; it consists of a red velvet cap lined with white silk and turned up with miniver, which is white ermine fur having small dots or tufts of black horsehair sewn into it at intervals. At the top is an ornamental gold button, with fringes of gold thread.
The earliest figure of a cap of this sort can be seen on the Black Prince's helmet over his tomb at Canterbury; it has been painted red and miniver, but is now in a very bad condition. The crest stands upon it.
The Cap of Estate, without any crown or coronet over it, is worn by the Sovereign on the way to the coronation, and it is also generally borne on a cushion by one of the great officers of State when the Sovereign is present in State or Semi-State. It is carried by the Marquis of Winchester or his representative. Peers used such caps pictorially before they showed coronets, and on fifteenth and sixteenth century seals the Cap of Estate marks a high rank. It commonly shows on the seals of Dukes and Earls in conjunction with a helmet. The chapeau in early times seems to end in two swallow-tails, but now it is worn round. As a crest support in modern times it is rarely granted, but there still remain a few instances of its use.
Although it is correct to depict coronets without the Cap of Estate, it is also correct to show them with it. In the latter case the miniver turn-up comes just below the lower rim of the circlet. It is a common mistake to show the miniver turn-up without the velvet Cap above it, which is obviously absurd.
In the absence of a crown or coronet the Helmet rests directly on the upper part of a shield. In fifteenth and sixteenth century seals it shows very large in comparison with the coat-of-arms, and so does the crest; the helmet often shows the guige or shield belt, and the shield often hangs couchée or sideways. The Helmet, so says Guillim, is the true mark of English nobility, and it certainly shows as such on seals dating from the fourteenth until about the end of the sixteenth century, when rank coronets began to be used instead of, or together with, a corresponding form of helmet.
From the early seventeenth century the shapes and metals of the helmets denoting rank have been clearly laid down, and they are as follows:—