and the Imperial Service Order. The Royal Victorian Chain is a collar and there are no other insignia. In France, Emperor Napoleon I introduced the "Grand aigle", a collar, as the highest rank in his Légion d'honneur. It did not survive his downfall. Sometimes the collar is the insignia of office of the Grand Master of the order; the French president therefore wears the collar of the Order of the Légion d'honneur. In other countries such as Brazil the collar is a rank above that of a Grand Cross and it is reserved for the president and foreign heads of state. Collars of Freemasonry Collars also have a long history within Freemasonry. Collars are often worn by officers of high rank. Nearly all Grand Lodge officers wear collars as an emblem of their office. In history, many such collars are quite valuable, featuring gold and precious jewels. Collars vary widely among Masonic Grand Lodges. While those Lodges working under the Grand Lodge of England have fairly uniform designs, Grand Lodges in the United States vary widely, employing collars made from metal chains backed by velvet, to those made of velvet and embroidered with gold and silver bullion thread. Today, English lodge officers wear a cloth or fabric collar with a simple jewel of their office pendant to it. Each jewel represents a skill or virtue which he possesses and instructs the brothers of Masonry in. In some jurisdictions, these jewels are silver-plated for the Craft or Blue Lodges under 100 years old, or gold-plated for lodges older than 100 years. The collars generally sit on the wearer's shoulders and fall over the chest, ending in a point between the breasts. See also Collar of orders Heraldic badge Livery Necklet Orders of Knighthood Presidential sash Citations General and cited references Purey-Cust, Arthur Percival. (1910). The Collar SS: A History and a Conjecture. Leeds, Richard Jackson. Strong, Roy. (1975). Nicholas Hilliard. London: Michael Joseph. ; Attribution Further reading Ward, Matthew, The Livery Collar in Late Medieval England and Wales: Politics, Identity and Affinity (The Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 2016). External links Collars of Orders of Knighthood and Livery Collars Award items Heraldry Necklaces Types of jewellery