In his Regement of Princes, Thomas Hoccleve reflected on the efficacy of church images in prompting the viewer to meditate on their subject matter:

The essential purpose of an image is to engender a response; the viewer is encouraged to reflect on why the image is there, and what purpose it carries. In addition, Hoccleve considered the similitude of images. In most cases they are intended as reflections of a reality. Although the poet is primarily concerned with devotional works, the image and response process he is describing was applicable to all images, sacred and secular. When the viewer beheld a tomb effigy or memorial brass, for example, they were encouraged to contemplate all the details. Armour, heraldry, representations of spouses and children, religious iconography and, if one was present, a livery collar, were all included for a reason. Collars in particular were not simply fashion accessories added at a whim. Placed on the most visually prominent part of the body, hung around the neck with a pendant of the lord's badge resting against the heart – a particularly appropriate symbolic position – they were designed to catch the eye. This was not only applicable to the collar's appearance on tombs; the artefact was also a significant aspect of the recipient's life.

The collar was an integral and significant aspect of the political and cultural lives of hundreds, if not thousands of individuals: so significant, in fact, that a correspondent of the Pastons deemed it necessary to mention that a visitor was wearing one. It associated the recipient with the donor who, as a result of the legislation of the beginning of the fifteenth century, was frequently the king or a member of the royal family, thus bestowing an element of prestige on the individual who wore the item. At the same time the collar served to proclaim the authority and worship of the crown: a symbiosis was at work.