Lot Essay
The arms are those of Horner quartering Malt and Fortescue impaling Hippisley for Colonel Thomas Horner Esq., (d.1844) of Mells Park, co. Somerset, and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir John Hippisley Bt., whom he married in 1805. The family acquired their wealth at the Dissolution of the Monastries, John Horner having served as steward to the Abbot of Glastonbury, John Horner's grandson, also called John was granted arms in 1584 and was made a Knight. The family lived at Mells Park, Somerset, which was initially constructed for Thomas Horner (1688-1741) in 1725, by the Somerset architect Nathaniel Ireson (1686-1769). The house was later remodelled and added to by the renowned architect Sir John Soane (1753-1837) from 1810-1827. These dinner-plates, the main part of which date from the early 19th Century, were no doubt re-modelled in the latest taste to adorn the new Soane dining-room. The house was destroyed by fire in 1917 and was rebuilt for another family by Lutyens in the 1920s.