[CHAPTER XI]
CROWNS, CORONETS, AND COLLARS
Crowns and Coronets; Introduction of Coronets; Coronets of Princes, Dukes, and Earls; Bequests of Coronets; Illustrations of Coronets and Crowns; Collars and Chains; Collars of Orders; Lancastrian Collars of SS; Yorkist Collars of Suns and Roses; Tudor Collars of SS; Other Livery Collars; Waits' Collars; Collars and Chains of Mayors, Mayoresses, and Sheriffs; The Revival of Collars; Inordinate Length of modern Collars.
At the present day it is the habit of divers ladies of rank to surmount their hair, when occasion allows, with diamond tiaras of surpassing splendour. The ladies of olden time were not free from a similar weakness, but the diamond mines of South Africa being then unknown, and other gems too costly, they encouraged the goldsmiths to make them beautiful crowns and crestings, with which they adorned their heads and headgear. A reference to the accurate drawings and details published by Stothard in his Monumental Effigies will show not only the high artistic excellence of these ornaments, but also how becoming they were to the ladies who wore them. They varied greatly in design, from the simple circlet of fleurons and trefoils of Queen Eleanor of Castile (fig. [158]) to the sumptuous piece of jewellery beset with pearls and stones, which is represented on the alabaster effigy of Queen Joan at Canterbury (fig. [159]) and reflects so worthily the yet more splendid crown of her husband, King Henry IV (fig. [173]).
Fig. 158. Crowned effigy of Queen Eleanor at Westminster.
