Coat of Arms

	Image: Duckeck coat of arms - plaster cast version.

The Duckeck family has a coat of arms, which dates back several centuries. There is not only this single coat of arms in the family history, at least two alternatives existed but this one is still used today.

The coat of arms represents the history and the particularity of the Duckeck family. During the centuries most male Duckecks were working as blacksmiths, which often also had the duties of a veterinary. And some of them were inventing usefull gadgets for every days life.

The coat of arms shows three sections which represent three different aspects of this work:

1. The three arrows to the left are easy to understand: arrows are weapons, this field symbolizes the weapon smith. For centuries most weapons like arrow heads, knifes, swords, halberds and javelins, were made by the smith. But he also made tools for defence, like shields, coats of mail and other metal armor. And in former times there were laws about weapon making, like today. The right to make weapons was a special honour to the blacksmith.


2. The pattern on the top right field seems to be abstract, but it is not. The scrolls symolize the artisan, the creator of fine and beautiful things. Not really an artist, as all of his creations have some kind of use or at least a certain back to the roots quality. Fine examples are doors, grates and latticeworks made of iron.


3. The half wheel bottom right symbolizes the blacksmith working for coaches and carriage. The smith had to make iron rings for the wooden wheels and several other parts of a carriage. There even existed a profession called wagon smith who specialized in this kind of work.
   In the coat of arms I would interpret this field as the smith producing goods for practical use, for every days life.

	Image: Duckeck coat of arms - iron cast version.

Obviously this coat of arms tells a lot about the history of the Duckeck family. Most of its members were blacksmiths. At the middle of the 20th century about 70% of the Duckecks in south Germany were blacksmiths, or at least something similar like auto repairmen. Today the young generation studies computer science, electronics or physics. Some even have some genes from their veterinary ancestors and study medicine.

A coat of arms is not typical for a non-aristocratic family, and so many members of the family are really fond of it. Over the time several versions of the coat of arms were produced. As already mentioned two or three different versions exist. The coat of arms on this page is the most detailed version, which was found on a coloured drawing from the 19th century.

To make it available to all members of the family, the first relief version was produced as plaster cast and coloured by hand. It is still available in a very limited number. It is available as a painted image, as a cast relief which is painted in the true colours, and molded in iron or aluminium.

My parents sold replicates of historic oven iron plates. Those plates of cast iron were used to build the typical ovens used in south Germany. And to make them nicer they were decorated with coat of arms, scenes from daily life and names and date. There was never a plate with the Duckeck coat of arms on it. Typically the Württemberg coat of arms was used. But when my parents made replicas of historic plates, they also made a iron cast version of the Duckeck coat of arms.