CANDLE LORE.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 10459, 14 December 1927, Page 5

CANDLE LORE.

OLDEN TIME AUCTIONS. CURIOUS METHOD. “Sale by candle” , lingered in England as a customary means of transacting business longer than most people imagine. The historian of the London Baltic Exchange. Mr. J. A. Findlay, has recalled that this method of auction, was in use there till 1830. , A correspondent writing to the London “Daily Telegraph” gives particulars of a sale of 201 Honduras mahogany logs. r ‘hy the- candle.” conducted at the famous Garni way’s Coffee House, m Change alley, as late as the year 1841. That the method should have endured into Queen Victoria’s reign can only he explained by the Englishman's love of old customs and unwillingness to cast them aside, for it was never efficient. It led to endless disputes. Samuel Pepys, more than two and a-half centuries ago. realised how had this type of auction was. He jotted in bis diary on November 3, 1660: “tin .our office, where we met for the sale of two ships by an inch candle, I observed how they did invite one another, and how at last they all did cry. and wo had much to do to tell who did crv. and we had much to do to tell who did'ery last.” The early practice was to- cut off an inch of candle, and let bidding.rise as it burnt, the last offer made as the wick fell being accepted'. Later ah inch was measured oil a tali candle, a pin stuck in the mark,, and the sale was; closed as tho pin dropped out. Both ways introduced an element of time, which was never necessary; though centuries went by before the discovery was made that it could safely be left to the auctioneer to determine when the market had exhausted its bids.,; A modern sale, when as many as 200 lots may be disposed of in a. single afternoon. would have been impossible under the rigid rule of the inch candle. Jt is hot onlv in. the auctionroom that the candle has .fallen out of use. Its ejection from the home also has. been largely brought about by gas and the electric light, and a, whole budget of candle legend And lore has dropped away with it. Dr. Primrose’s daughter, in “The Vicar of.-Wakefield.” saw rings, in the candle ; omens of the married state. -A spark at the candle was held to .import that the party opposite to ,it 'would .shortly receive a Filer. Well into recent ' times country peoplewould read the weather by: the can■die. • ■„ ■