Congratulations to You!

Here's a hearty "Congratulations!" to those of my eagle-eyed readers who may have noticed another, different coat of arms on the building housing the embassy of the French Republic in my last post.

You are indeed correct! There is a coat of arms over the tympanum on the façade of that building which is not the arms of the Republic.

Can you see the shield here? (Feel free to click on the image above to go to a larger, more detailed photograph.)

No? How about this one?

Looking a little closer, we see this:

If you search carefully (and again, click on the image above to see a larger version), you will find that the shield is surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Elephant.

A quick review of the Arms Books of the Order (which can be accessed on-line at https://www.kongehuset.dk/vaabenboeger), we discover that these are the arms of Otto Thott (in the Latin of the Arms Books, Ottonem de Thott), Quarterly gules and or.

Looking for him on-line, we find that Otto Thott (1703–1785) was a Danish Count, minister of state, and land owner. During his lifetime, he acquired Gavnø Castle and one of the largest private collections of book and manuscripts in Denmark. (Books and manuscripts. Ah, a man after my own heart!) His library contained some 138,000 volumes at his death. (Okay, he’s got me beat by a long ways!)

The building here is the Thott Mansion, which takes its current name after the Thott family who owned it from 1750 to 1930. It now (obviously) houses the French embassy.

And there you have it! A second, more prominent coat of arms on a building which also bears the arms and flag of the French Republic, situated in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Congratulations to those of you who spotted it in the previous post!