From U. S. A. - I use the phrase "Lord love a duck!"a lot, when I am surprised. My mom used the phrase once and I remember wondering where she picked it up. Then I realized that the old b&w Sherlock Holmes movies on tv, that I love, were in the movies when she was young. I picked up the phrase, I believe, from Dennis Hoey’s Inspector Lestrade! I have heard it in a few places since, from Sherlock Holmes fans!
I wouldn’t say it’s usual to use the whole phrase for every example, but yeah, it is for some, like this one and apples and pears. And yeah, I’ve heard it in real life - only from older people, but it’s definitely used. My parents’ generation (70s) use it. Without the d in lord.
(I’m assuming you mean they do rhyme, not don’t).
If “duck” is taken to refer to a person, then I imagine the phrase “odd duck” (I.e. a strange fellow) must be of similar origin.
There’s a character in a 1959 Sci-Fi short story by Cordwainer Smith called Lord Lovaduck.
Prince Lovaduck had obtained his odd name because he had had a Chinesian ancestor who did love ducks, ducks in their Peking form—succulent duck skins brought forth to him ancestral dreams of culinary ecstasy.
His ancestress, an English lady, had said, “Lord Lovaduck, that fits you!”—and the name had been proudly taken as a family name.
And lets not forget the villainous Sydney Ducks, a mob of largely ex-Tasmanian convicts who went off to the California goldrushes and discovered there was more and easier money to be made in the wild streets of San Francisco. Imagine an unholy blending of Deadwood, Gangs of New York and the Wiggles.
In the English Household Magazine, September 1882, there’s a story article titled ‘Reminiscences of a Ne’er Do Well’, which contains the following short poem:
Hail, asthmatic bye-and-bye;
Welcome gout and dropsy -
‘Love’s a bother,’ so say I -
‘Love’s a duck’ says Popsy.
I don’t know if this is related at all - it appears to predate all of the printed instances of ‘love a duck’ I can find, but it might just be chance arrangement of the same words.