Vintage Gurley Thanksgiving Pilgrim Candles! Midcentury! Classic.

Vintage. Mid-century candles. See numerous pictures posted for your up-close views & measurements. information on the company. The company started out in Buffalo, New York in the 1939 as part of candlemaker Franklin Gurley's W&F Manufacturing Co. Inc. At first the Gurley line was commissioned by the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company (now ExxonMobil) as a way to reuse excess paraffin produced as a by-product of the oil refinery process. Gurley's first products were marketed under the name Tavern. The product line consisted of wax lips and teeth, as well as a limited number of small candle figures in holiday shapes such as ghosts, pilgrims, and Santa Claus.By the late 1940s the company's business was almost exclusively novelty candles. In 1949 Franklin Gurley bought the rights to the Tavern brand, and changed the name to the Gurley Novelty Co. Under the Gurley Novelty Co. name the company continued to manufacture the small wax figures that had made it prosperous. Most candles were manufactured for specific holiday themes. Though each candle came with a wick they were not marketed as practical candles. Rather most were purchased as small wax figures for holiday display. Smaller candles were sold individually out of shallow cardboard boxes. Sets, and larger candles were sold in sealed paper boxes. Beginning in the 1960s the two and three-candle sets, and larger candles, were generally sold shrink-wrapped in cellophane. Most candles had a round paper Gurley label attached to the bottom.