After the reign of King Henry VIII the wearing of the collar of SS gradually became restricted to judges and other officials, and has so survived to the present day, when it is still worn in England by the lord chief justice, the kings-of-arms, heralds, and pursuivants, and by the serjeants-at-arms.
The lord chief justice's collar, like all those formerly worn by the judges, is composed of SS and knots; the others of SS only.
Beside the livery collars above mentioned, others have been worn from time to time.
In the exquisitely painted diptych or Richard II and his avowries, now at Wilton House, the King has about his neck a collar formed of golden broom-cods, and the gorgeous red mantle in which he is habited is covered all over with similar collars enclosing his favourite badge, the white hart. A collar of gold 'de Bromecoddes' with a sapphire and two pearls occurs in the great inventory taken on the death of King Henry V, and a collar formed of SS and broom-cods was also made for King Henry VI in July 1426.[27]
On his effigy at Ripon (c. 1390) Sir Thomas Markenfield displays a collar formed of park palings, which widen out in front to enclose a couchant hart (fig. [184]). If this were not a personal collar, it may have been a livery of Henry of Lancaster as earl of Derby.
Fig. 184. Head of the effigy in Ripon minster of Sir Thomas Markenfield with livery collar of park-palings.
A brass of the same date of a knight, formerly at Mildenhall, showed him as wearing a collar apparently once composed of scrolls with scriptures, joining in front upon a large crown with a collared dog or other beast within it.
The brass at Wotton-under-Edge of Thomas lord Berkeley (ob. 1417) shows him with a collar sown with mermaids, the cognisance of his house (fig. [185]).