Artifact No.34 - Dead Duck Plate

We have another weird artifact for you and this one gives off a bit of a weird vibe. It’s a small porcelain plate with a pewter frame and on the front of the plate is two dead mallards on a mantle, with some spruce boughs, binoculars, a jug, a jacket and what kind of looks like oak leaves. This plate was produced in Germany and was made by the Schwarzenhammer company sometime during the 1950s. From what we can find online it may have been part of a set at one point because we can find other plates with other dead birds on them that were made by the same company.

Now it could just be the dead mallards on the plate that makes this thing feel unnerving, but it’s been sitting in our collection for a bit and it’s been a hard item to forget.

Mallards are often seen as a symbol of spiritual cleansing and committed relationships because mallards mate for life, so to see a plate with a pair of dead mallards feels a bit ominous, especially to see the dead mallards in combination with the oak leaves and spruce branches. Oak leaves are sometimes used as talismans against evil spirits and spruce branches signify magical protection or the life cycle. It makes us wonder is something weird must have happened. The artist was into some interesting symbolism. Maybe something evil around them made the artist feel like they needed to paint all these symbols of protection on the plate for a reason.

If you feel you’re in need of protection, because you bought a haunted artifact and you need protection from evil, then maybe this plate is the right item for you.