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With home improvements on upswing, candles make a resurgence
Between 400,000 and 1 million years ago, our ancestors made fire. This one creation changed the course of daily life, and it would take yet another few hundred thousand more years, according to the National Candle Association in Washington, D.C., for candles to appear. Candles and candlesticks have since become fixtures of religious observances, a decorative note in homes and restaurants, and lighting them up has turned into a soothing personal ritual for many.
With home improvements on the upswing, candles (and candlesticks) have found a resurgence, as people are investing in these rather small but impactful additions.
People who sell candles have noticed. “Tapers are absolutely a top-selling gift item,” said Sandeep Salter, owner of Salter House, a home goods store in Brooklyn, referring to the candles that come to mind when you picture candlesticks.
The 7-inch-tall Twisted Beeswax Taper candles ($14 for two) are particularly popular at her shop, Salter said. “I think people have incorporated the ceremoniousness of candle lighting at mealtime into more of an everyday practice; like many other places in the world, it’s no longer being held exclusively for big holiday tables.”
For those in the market, there are several types of candles to choose from. In addition to tapers, which are thin, cylindrical and more slender toward one end, there are pillar candles, which have more heft and girth, requiring a candlestick with a wider space to insert or support them. Votive candles are smaller than pillars and tapers, and tea lights smaller still. Neither are typically much to look at on their own, but their holders can be no less exquisite as other candlesticks.
While you can pay a lot for a candle, you don’t have to: Thrift stores and resale sites such as eBay can be a treasure trove for finding them at a discount and in bulk. Candleholders can be inexpensive, too. There is the
classic beatnik approach, sticking a taper in an old Chianti bottle or even carving a hole in a potato (or apple) — anything that keeps a candle upright and can catch the melting wax will work in a pinch.
Regardless of your budget, pairing a candle and candleholder benefits from experimentation and unlikely couplings.
Candelabras, candlesticks and holders
The Murano-adjacent Candy Glass Short candlesticks ($135 for two) are 4 inches tall and available in four candy-shopinspired colorways. Areaware’s 2.5-inch-tall Terrace Candle Holder ($35), sold in three shades, is also made of glass and does double duty: one side can hold a votive candle, and the other, a taper.
Designed by Philippe Starck for Baccarat, the glass-and-crystal
Harcourt Firestick ($1,220) is a favorite of Kathy Hilton. With the RW Guild Reed Candlestick (from $210), options abound. It is sold in eight heights, ranging from 2.5 to 16.25 inches tall, and three finishes, including silver and two brass treatments — an assortment that recalls the variety of Ted Muehling’s Biedermeier Candlesticks for E.R. Butler & Co. (from $250), which is available in 19 sizes, starting at 3 inches tall, and five metallic finishes.
Technically a candelabra, Virginia Sin’s two-armed Duo Candlestick ($58) comes in four colors and is 2.5 inches tall.
Technically not a candelabra, Tracy Ren’s Blue & White Candelabra ($88) is 3.5 inches tall, holds a single taper and is inspired by blue-and-white Chinese porcelain.
Like the coastal town it shares a name with, Astier de Villatte’s ceramic Positano Candlestick
($385) is a sight to behold. Just more than 17 inches tall, it can support pillars or tapers. Also designed to display both is x
Lea & Nicolas’ pair of 4.5- and 2-inch-tall holders made of terra cotta ($70 for two).
Far finer a material is the sterling silver of Georg Jensen’s roughly 6-inch-tall Grape Candlestick ($5,500). A purveyor to the Queen of Denmark, the maker introduced the design, embellished with tiny fruits, in 1930. If you’re in the market for silver: In his prescriptive, out-of-print cookbook, “Living and Eating,” architect John Pawson recommends even older styles, including Georgian and Victorian candlesticks. “A surprising choice, perhaps, given their curves could undoubtedly be simplified, although not improved by subtraction,” Pawson writes.
Intricately crafted foliage adorns the 3-inch-tall Small
Leaves Candle Holder ($66 for two) from Giacomo Alessi, an artisan based in Sicily who was designated a Living Human Treasure by UNESCO. Another timeless style: Tiffany & Co.’s 10-inch-tall Classic Candlestick made of lead crystal ($100).
Farmhouse Pottery in Woodstock, Vermont, designed the Essex Candlestick (from $55) for West Elm. Made of wood, it is sold in three sizes, from
5.5 to 9.5 inches tall, and four colors. Colorful, too, is Geraldine Gonzalez’s holder ($35), which is lined in painted tissue paper and becomes even more vibrant when a votive or tea candle is lit inside.
Taper and pillar candles
Abundant and affordable, Ikea’s white Jubla tapers start at a 7.5 inches tall (from $8.99 for 20) and are made of stearin that the retailer says is derived from animal fat. The 3-foot-tall tapers from Creative Candles ($42 for one) can be purchased in four colors. Their blended wax, according to the brand, includes beeswax, paraffin and carnauba. Sister Moons’ Light-the-Night Beeswax tapers (from $30 for two) are sold in five shades and two sizes, an 11-inch height that is curvy and a 14-inch one that is more angular.
Made from beeswax in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Blush
Floral Taper Candle ($45) is crafted in a style native to that city for candles used to celebrate marriage proposals. House of Saku’s Round Earth Pillar Candle (from $39) looks as if it could have been cut from rock, but is made of palm wax and sold in five sizes between 5.9 and 15 inches tall. Lex Pott’s color-blocked Pillar Candle for Hay (from $45), made of paraffin wax, is also available in five heights, from 5.5 to 13.75 inches tall.