It all started on a trip to London last year. While browsing wicker baskets at the Columbia Road Flower Market boutique Straw, I spotted a sheath of skinny beeswax candles slightly taller than those you might stick into a birthday cake. They were dainty and homemade-looking, with floppy string wicks. They were almost exactly the same color as the Plasticana clogs that were also available to purchase. They were way too expensive, and the store owner simply shrugged when I asked how one was supposed to display them.
I went home empty-handed, but began Googling things like “holders for very skinny candles?” in earnest. My research took me to the lo-fi but informative website TinyTapers.com, where I learned that tall, thin taper candles are actually a 1960s trend popularized by mid-century design house Dansk. Dansk sold a series of stylish tiny taper-candle holders (somewhat reminiscent of menorahs) too, a few of which have recently been reissued by Food52. It also turned out that the candles I’d spotted at Straw were technically Greek Orthodox Church candles, which are fairly cheap to buy in bulk online.
A few months later, my apartment resembles an abbey. Some of the best tiny taper candles and holders I found, below.
Brooklyn cottagecore destination the Six Bells stocks these handmade beeswax candles that are similar to the ones I saw at Straw.
Or else buy them in bulk from an Orthodox church candle seller in Bulgaria.
Vintage Dansk tiny taper candles are readily available on Etsy and eBay, although I’d definitely advise against burning them.
My current favorite website, TinyTapers.com, sells new candles designed to fit into vintage Dansk holders, as pictured.
I’ve been displaying these green guys on my dining table.
I stick my candles in these silver-plated tiny taper-candle holders, a reproduction of a 1964 Dansk design by Jens Quistgaard.
For maximum dinner-party drama, though, I suggest purchasing Quistgaard’s classic lotus-shaped holder design from 1963.
On Etsy, a stunning vintage Dansk holder shaped like a silver crown with two packs of candles included.
Or, if your tastes veer more Victorian than mid-century, Anthropologie’s “mini-candles” are a quarter of an inch thicker than the Dansk-inspired tapers, above, and fit into the brand’s bespoke candlesticks.
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