La Petit Abd El Kader

Founded in 1643 by Claude Trudon, who took over a grocery and wax shop on rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, Trudon is the oldest candlemaker still operating in the world. Within a generation the family was supplying candles to Versailles under Louis XIV, and by 1719 they held the official title of Royal Wax Manufacturer under Louis XV. Marie Antoinette was so devoted to the candles that she gave them her own nickname, "La Trudonne," and her husband, Louis XVI, reportedly chose to burn Trudon candles during his imprisonment in the Revolution, and the family hid its blazon under a layer of mortar to protect it. The candles are still hand-poured today at the Normandy workshop, using cotton wicks and vegetal wax, with the same clean, even burn that made the Trudon name synonymous with candlelight in the first place.