LET'S TALK ANTIQUES
Ancestors dipped candles and said let there be light

Can you imagine just how dark early homes were at night before electricity? Our ancestors might have lit their homes with whale oil lamps, kerosene lamps, or gas, but most of the struggling colonists and pioneers made and burned candles. They could be hand dipped or molded at home out of materials that were readily available such as beeswax, tallow and bayberry.

Candles provided an inexpensive portable light when needed.

Beeswax was hard to get, especially if you raided the bee tree yourself. It was expensive if you had to buy it. Tallow was a more common candle ingredient. It comes from the hard, dry, cow, sheep or deer fat. At butchering time, it was saved for a near future candle making day. Often, beeswax and bayberries were mixed in for fragrance but tallow could be used alone.

Most candles were used in the winter. In summer, people got up early and went to bed when it got too dark to see. The constant flame in the fireplace served as illumination, too. Candles were saved for important events and for emergencies. A brightly lit room, full of candles, was only for the very rich.

Candles were made in several ways. One method was to dip a fiber wick into the hot tallow or wax, over and over again. By the time many wicks were dipped the first ones had cooled enough to dip again. The dipping was repeated until the candle was the right size. Usually several wicks were tied to a stick and dipped together to save time and effort.

Another method was to pour warm, liquid tallow into a candle mold. The molds generally had 6 to 12 tubes in each one. There were also single molds and occasionally molds with 20 or more tubes. An experienced candle maker could make about 200 candles in a day. Some were saved for personal use, and others were traded for goods. Thus, candles could be purchased, even in early times.

I started dipping candles more than 30 years ago and still love to burn the ones I make.

My candle holder of choice is a hog scraper candlestick. It gets its name from the scraper that was used to clean the hide of a scalded hog at butchering time. Last week I pictured a hog scraper as the “What Is It?” item, and Dabney Doty called first with the correct answer. He said that he had seen one in use but in his family, a wide bladed knife was the tool of choice.

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Nancy Russell is co-owner of Friends Together Antiques at 4038 E. Broadway in Columbia. If you have an item for “What is It?” or something about which you would like information, please send a photo and brief description to antiques@tribmail.com or to Antiques, Columbia Daily Tribune, P.O. Box 798, Columbia, Mo., 65205.

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