Scented Candle History:
From the Stone Age to Present Time

Necessity is the mother of invention and early candles sometimes took rather bizarre forms to utilize available resources. The use of, and improvements to candles has paralleled man's ascent from the stone age. There is no historical record of the first candles used by man; however, clay candle holders dating from the fourth century B.C. have been found in Egypt.

Early Chinese and Japanese candles were made with wax derived from insects and seeds molded in paper tubes. Wax skimmed from boiling cinnamon was the basis of tapers for temple use in India.

The first known candle in America dates to the first century A.D. Native Americans burned oily fish (candlefish) wedged into a forked stick (gee - we wonder what THAT smelled like??).

Early missionaries in the southwestern United States boiled the bark of the Cerio tree and skimmed the wax. Settlers in New England used the same technique to obtain wax from Bayberries.

To this day Bayberry candles are made the same way, although cost is prohibitive since it takes one and a half quarts of Bayberries to make an 8 inch taper candle.

Tallow, made by rendering animal fat was another common candle making material. Because of its odor, beeswax was preferred although more expensive. The advent of paraffin in the 1800's made tallow obsolete, and it is rarely used in candles anymore.