This first purpose-made beeswax candle and holder was recently sold at our downtown boutique, the ‘Beehive’. The Steam-Punk-looking wrought iron holder is a modern rendition of an old piece of time-keeping technology called a ‘courting candle’ or ‘courtship candle’ used from the 1600 – 1800s. The candle on this one has been burned down quite a bit, but when new the rolled-up candle would have filled the whole space enclosed by its bulging silhouette. Burn time for the entire beeswax roll is around 80 hours, so it looks like there’s about 20 hours left here. The candle holder can only use specially-made beeswax candles which are softer at room temperature than average and so are flexible enough to unroll without breaking, although in a very cold room even the beeswax will crack. Fortunately, refill candle-rolls are sold online.
So how does this thing keep time? When lit, the candle only burns down as far as the cup (or nozzle) that it passes through, when it reaches the metal barrier, restricted oxygen snuffs it out. The key crank on the side of the holder allows you to determine what length of candle to burn and with a little experience you can accurately select the timed-burn you’d prefer.
They’re called Courting Candles because lore has it that stern fathers used them to determine how long an eager suitor could spend courting his virginal young daughter – when the flame went out, so did the boyfriend! (And don’t let the doorknob hit you in the a**!) In reality, if you live in a wooden house full of flammable wood furniture and feather-beds, a timed, self-extinguishing candle is also an attractive safety feature, perfect for bed-time reading.
This vertical version of a courting candlestick (from an earlier QBO sale) has a wooden plug that the candle rests on inside the wrought iron spiral. The plug’s height is adjusted up or down to determine burn-time. This holder is more versatile than the first, using any standard candle made of any kind of wax. In the 1600s an alternate to beeswax would be bayberry, made by boiling the waxy coating off of the fruit of the wax-myrtle or bayberry shrub (ex. Myrica cerifera). Like beeswax, bayberry wax has a lovely, distinct scent that is prized by candle-makers. Cheaper common candles were made of tallow, (hard, rendered beef fat) which burns smokey and has a discernable ‘meaty’ smell. By the mid 1800s, paraffin wax had been developed by Carl Reichenbach in Germany. Paraffin is a by-product of petroleum oil refining that was (and still is) used in liquid form as a fuel much like kerosene, but with the addition of stearic acid (a byproduct of the meatpacking industry) it makes hard, odor-free, clean burning candles that can be custom-scented and so is the wax most often used in candle making today. Soy wax candles, the new kid on the block, were only invented in 1991 by Michael Richards, a candle maker who developed an economical method of creating wax from soybean oil.
Warning: R-Rated Content from here on out! Soy candles have a very low melting temperature and are the only kind of wax candles actually safe to drip directly onto your skin, if you’re into that kind of thing. Which brings us to another old-school timed candle, ‘brothel candles’. These tiny candles no longer than a little finger came in a match-box style pack, had a chemical ‘head’ allowing them to be struck alight like a match, and were used by workers in European brothels, hence the name. When the customer paid his money the working girl lit the candle and when it burned out his fun time was up. They were good for 7 minutes. Oh, and some of the workers secretly trimmed them down even shorter. Don’t let the doorknob hit you in the a**.
Tuesday Treasures was started by our staff member, Jeanne Lusignan. Each week she will be featuring items that have been found at our estate sales. If you would like to submit a treasure for Jeanne to feature in a future installment of “Tuesday’s Treasures”, please follow the button below and send us an email! Please attach a few photos of your treasure in a beautiful setting as well as any details you have about your item such as manufacturer, use, age, region of origin. If you don’t know about the piece, that’s okay! We still might be able to research it for you! Don’t forget to tell us what makes this item such a treasure to you!