Sculptural Leopard Ball Candle, Hand Painted Molded Wax, c. 1980

The Piece

A sculptural ball candle in the form of a leopard draped over a spotted sphere, cast in cream wax and hand finished with brown spots and a soft umber wash that settles into the texture of the coat. The cat lies along the top of the ball with its head resting on its forepaws and its tail curled down one side, modeled in full relief, and the sphere beneath it is textured with a combed fur pattern and painted with the rosettes of a leopard's coat. The wick rises from the cat's back, and the candle was lit briefly at some point and then kept, so the wick is trimmed short and a small pool of wax has run down one flank and set, which reads as part of its character rather than as damage.

The wax has mellowed with age from white to a warm ivory and the painted spots have darkened, giving the piece the look of carved bone or old ivory rather than a new candle. It is intact, with the cat's ears, tail and paws all present, and it stands square on a flattened base. It is sold as a decorative object and will stand on a shelf indefinitely; it can also be burned, though doing so will consume the sculpture.

History & Provenance

Sculptural figural candles were a staple of the American gift trade in the 1970s and 1980s, when a generation of small wax studios and importers turned the candle from a utilitarian taper into a piece of tabletop sculpture, molded in deep relief and hand painted. Animal subjects, and big cats in particular, were among the most popular, sold through department store gift floors, museum shops and the boutique candle makers that flourished in that decade. Most were burned and are gone; the survivors are the ones that were too handsome to light.

No maker's mark is present on the base, and the candle is offered as an unattributed American studio or gift trade piece of about 1980. The dating rests on the materials and the finish rather than style alone: the hand painted wash over molded wax, the yellowing of the wax and the darkening of the pigment are consistent with a candle made around 1980 and kept out of use since.

Product Details

Why It Belongs in Your Home

This is a small sculpture that happens to be made of wax. It sits on a stack of books, a bedside table or a bathroom shelf and reads as a carved object from across the room, and the ivory and umber palette goes with linen, brass, dark wood and plaster alike. It is a natural for a layered, collected interior that likes a touch of the exotic, and a quiet companion to the animal bronzes, horn and shell that the same rooms tend to gather. For a shop or designer client it is the kind of odd, charming accent that finishes a vignette, and it is far more interesting than anything the candle aisle sells today.