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snuffer maker

mariew

mariew

master brummie
I have a document of my Great Great Great Grandfathers that says his occupation was a snuffer maker has anyone any idea what this was exactly.
 
Snuffer Maker Made candle snuffers
it was a cone shaped implement like a bell usually with a wooden handle in different lengths
small for tables and long for ceiling height usually on a chandelier
 
Poecelain factories also made snuffers. They often were in the shape of a popular person of the day, I have also seen ones modelled on Wee Willie Winkie. They are collected today. :)
 
Snuffers are still being made in some quantity, for use in churches where candles are burned. Usually combined with a taper holder for lighting the candles on altars and hanging overhead, they are on the end of a pole or road, either of metal or wood.
I came across a snuffer maker the other day in Robson's 1839 directory.
Peter
 
Not so brainy perhaps?!

Hi,

Your other respondents seem to be confusing a snuffer with a douser or extinguisher. Candle snuffers are a scissor like implement formerly used for trimming the wicks on candles while they were burning in order to reduce guttering and to give a better light. They were made in many different metals including brass, steel, silver, close plate and Sheffield plate and many were made by highly skilled craftsmen; perhaps your Great Grandfather was one of those? Today people tend to use the word snuffer to refer to the conical extinguishers but this is really not correct.

All the best,

Simon
 
Hello Simon and welcome very interesting.

What you doing in Darlington?:)
 
Yes that is interesting it would be nice to think that he was a highly skilled craftsman, and I have seen the scissor type impliments on an antiques program and they can be very nicely decorated, thank you simon.
 
Snuffers etc

Hello! I'm not actually from the Birmingham area but I'm very interested in candlesticks and snuffers; I understand that Birmingham was a centre for the manufacture of high quality metalwork in the 18th and early 19th centuries. I found this site whilst searching for snuffers elsewhere on the web.
 
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