Handmade candles of course are nothing new, the first were produced out of necessity.

It seems hard to believe to us in this day and age that to have light you could not just flick a switch and have the magic of electricity provide all the light you could ever want. Perhaps gas light was not quite so convenient, there was the need to use a taper or other form of lighter to ignite the gas having first turned the knob to get the gas to flow. Also gas was noisier and flickered which did not always make reading a book or newspaper a pleasurable experience. Where today we occasionally have to change a light bulb in the days of gas it was the very delicate gas mantle that seemed to explode the first time it was ever lit Carved unique gift candles but then was fine until you accidentally touched it, and the gentlest of touches at that, to see it disintegrate into dust before your very eyes!

But everything is relative as they say. Gas lighting to us may not seem very convenient or practical but it was a whole lot better than what went before. Just imagine those first handmade candles that were created from animal fat. The smell of fat being rendered is not the nicest odour so you can imagine what it must have been like to be sitting having the family meal as the wick burned down through the animal fat. Delightful!

Thankfully technology moved on in candle manufacture to produce something more pleasurable to use but let us not forget that the vast majority of people would not have been able to afford lighting produced using the better materials.

From those early days and far from ideal days many different candles have been produced, wide selection of shapes and sizes, colours to blend in with your home colour scheme, insect repellent for outdoor use to keep those annoying insects at bay and thankfully ones that are smokeless and dripless. It seems strange to think that the highest quality are those that are handmade which almost seems like we have gone right back to the beginning, but of course it is the material that they are mad from that makes all the difference.

Handmade candles do not come any better than beeswax dinner candles.

That seems like a bold statement but what we are talking about are candles that are 100% bees wax and poured by hand.

When you open the box it is obvious that they are not made from ordinary wax.

Removing the paper from each one that is individually wrapped reveals an elegant candle that looks too good to burn.

They look really well in a candelabra used purely for decorative purposes but lit they add a bit of class to any room or occasion.

You can buy smokeless candles that are also dripless. Being non drip there is the bonus that most of the wax is burnt and not wasted by pouring down the side and making a mess of your table setting. Candles with these credentials are first class, of that there is little doubt. But add handmade and beeswax into the equation and you have something so fine that anyone would be proud to display as their dinner table centrepiece.

Although these handmade candles are smokeless there is the delicate scent of bees wax that does not overpower when used for a dinner party or indeed an intimate and romantic dinner for two.

As you might expect, custom made candles manufactured totally from bees wax and individually made by hand definitely will not be cheap. But quality comes at a price and there can be no question that these are of a high calibre and can only be classed as top of the range.