Collar of Esses Brooch

First recorded in the effigy of Sir John Swynford (died 1371), and used continuously since then in England as a mark of fealty and/or office, during the Wars of the Roses, the collar of Esses served as a badge of the Lancastrian party. Full-size collars were worn by royal and noble individuals, small pewter badges of the collar by their lowly adherents.

This brooch depicts the style of livery collar where fittings were attached to a strap which fastened with a buckle and had a pendant, usually with additional heraldic significance. In this case the pendant has an unmistakable meaning – it is a crown.

Copied after an original found near Brooks’ Wharf, Thames Street sometime before the publication of the 1940 London Museum Medieval Catalogue.