Topic: EVE Glass water candles by Corning, 1970s

[Anne]

I don't ever recall seeing these mentioned on the board, so I'm adding them for reference. I had some in my teens from new (in the 1970s) and lost them sometime way back when, but found a boxed pair a couple of weeks ago so picked them up out of nostalgia! 

The box says Eve glass, Made in England. Eve is a registered trademark of Corning Limited, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear (that dates them to post-1974 when Tyne and Wear was created as part of the county restructuring then.)

They are two clear glass cylinder-shaped vases with a hooped pattern in the lower half. The idea being to put water into them, add about 1/2" (1cm) of vegetable oil, place a wick in the plastic holder supplied and float the holder on the surface of the oil, then light the wick. This creates a vegetable oil candle. In the water below the oil you can add things to make it look pretty - e.g. shells, pebbles, marbles, etc...

I've scanned the box front and back and the leaflet insert from the box, rather than take photos of the glasses (because it's easier to see them on the scans.)  Also of interest are the other items in the Eveglass range shown on the back of the box - I'm sure I've seen some of those as mystery objects on the board at some time!

[scavo]

I found a box of these too. Completely unused. Bought them purely for the novelty value. You can understand why they never got used. Who wants there house smelling of chip fat over a romantic meal?? Anyhow mine are going ...

Excellent detective work on finding the post-'74 Tyne and Wear ...

I would suggest - but I do not know for sure, that these were made following the 'Winter of Discontent' when everyone was running out of candles.
Note the House of Rizla (hardly Dunhill), so I'm guessing there was something you tore off your ciggy paper pack and sent off to get this classy item?

[Anne]

I wonder if the RIZLA connection was the wicks?  I seem to recall I bought my originals in the Co-Op (housewares not food shop) as I did with so much of the stuff at that time. We only had a Co-Op and a Woolworth's in Kendal then, plus the posh county store I couldn't afford to shop in as a teenager in my first job.

By the way, I did use mine and they didn't smell of chip fat! 

[scavo]

I dunno what the Rizla connection might be? It could well be that they were trying a bit of a Dunhill? I do remember ads on the inside of Rizla packs when I used to smoke. People think iPads are fancy!

But it made me larf, 'coz if you smoked roll-ups, you didn't have a sense of smell, and you probably eat a lot of chips too. So the smell of chip oil from your jazzy water candle would hardly be noticed :lho: - oh, I bet my grandparents had one of these in the cupboard along with all the other stuff they got with their Greenshield stamps! My Grandad was a dedicated Co-op shopper as it stood against southern imperialism in the North! We had a Woolworths in my town too. I used to buy 45s in there.