In 1390-1 a gold signet was engraved for him 'cum j plume et j coler,' of which unhappily no impressions are known. In 1391-2 there was made for him a 'coler' of gold 'with seventeen letters of S after the manner of feathers with scrolls and scriptures in the same with a swan in the tiret.' This recalls the badge upon one of Henry's own seals as earl of Derby (1385) described above (p. 167), an ostrich plume entwined with a scroll and the scripture souvereyne (pl. [XXIV] C), and we know from other sources of Henry's favour towards the Bohun swan, which device he used in right of his first wife, the lady Mary Bohun. The collar of SS, moreover, on the effigy of John Gower the poet (ob. 1402) in Southwark cathedral church has a swan on the pendant of it, and no doubt represents the collar actually given to him by Henry of Lancaster in 1393-4. The initial letter, too, of the charter granted to the city of Gloucester by Henry as King in 1399, contains a crown encircled by a collar of SS ending in two lockets between which is a pendant charged with a swan. The earl's accounts for 1393-4 mention the purchase of the silver 'of a collar made with rolled esses and given to Robert Waterton because the lord had given the collar of the same Robert to another esquire.'
In 1396-7 a charge is entered 'for the weight of a collar made, together with esses, of flowers of soveigne vous de moy[21] hanging and enamelled weighing eight ounces.'
What these flowers were is uncertain. Charges for making 'flores domini' occur in 1390-1 and other years, and in 1391-2 three hundred leaves (?flowers) de souveine vous de moy of silver-gilt were bought for one of the earl's robes.
In 1407 Henry of Lancaster as King ordered payment to be made to Christopher Tildesley, citizen and goldsmith of London, of the huge sum of £385 6s. 8d. 'for a collar of gold worked with this word soveignez and letters of S and X enamelled and garnished with nine large pearls, twelve large diamonds, eight balases, and eight sapphires, together with a great nouche in manner of a treangle with a great ruby set in it and garnished with four large pearls.'[22]
Most of these entries suggest that the mysterious SS stand for Soveignez, and possibly at one time this was the case, but Henry's seal as earl of Derby in 1385 containing the feathers with the scripture souvereyne must not be overlooked. There is moreover, on a fragment which has fortunately survived in a tattered and burnt mass of fragments of a jewel account of Henry's reign in the Public Record Office, the important entry of a payment to Christopher Tildesley of 'a collar of gold made for the King with twenty-four letters of S pounced with soverain, and four bars, two pendants, and a tiret with a nouche garnished with a balas and six large pearls (the balas bought of the said Christopher for £10 and the price of the pearls at 40s., being £12) weighing 7 oz. Troy at 23s. 4d. £8 3s. 4d. Also a black tissue for the same collar 3s. 4d. and for the workmanship of it £4.'[23] The King's word soverayne also occurs many times, with the Queen's word a temperance, on the tester over their monument at Canterbury, which has likewise the shield of arms for the King, the King and Queen, and the Queen alone, encircled in each case with a collar of SS with golden eagles placed upon the tiret. Gold eagles also form stops between the repetitions of the word soverayne.
Another example of a collar of SS with an eagle as a pendant is to be seen on the monument of Oliver Groos, esquire (ob. 1439), in Sloley church, Norfolk (fig. [180]).
