Antique wooden candle boxes in the 1700's and 1800's

candleboxes Did you know candle boxes were originally made to protect precious candles from being eaten by rats, mice and other vermin up until the early 1800's?

Candles in the main were made from animal based tallow ( from sheep and cattle), unless you were incredibly rich where you would have beeswax ones, animal tallow candles would still have been used by the servants though. These candles would have given off a foul smell when burnt and a smoky flame. The animal fat odour even when not alight would have attracted these vermin, so candle boxes were made to keep their supplies of candles safe.

Sometimes candle boxes even had coarse flour or bran in them to prevent the candles sticking to each other.

There sometimes is confusion as to what shape wooden candle boxes were, like anything else there is always going to be exceptions to this as almost every house hold would have had a candle box of some form positioned either in the kitchen by the stairs or in other convenient positions in the house, but as a general guide wall hanging candle boxes were rectangular in shape hanging vertically with a front sliding lid or hanging horizontally with a lift up lid. Tapered boxes often used and described as being for candles today, were in fact for kitchen knives and forks.

Next week interesting facts on antique treen spice towers.