According to old European folktale, a candle made out of the dried, severed hand of a criminal — known as the Hand of Glory — had supernatural powers. Traditionally, a Hand of Glory was the pickled right hand of a felon, cut off while the body still hung from the gallows. It was used by burglars to send the sleeping victims in a house into a coma from which they were unable to wake.

There were a couple of versions of the Hand on Glory. In one interpretation, a clenched hand is used as a candleholder, with the candle held between the bent fingers. In another version, such as the hand at the Whitby Museum in England, all five fingers of an outstretched hand were lit. If one of the fingers did not light, the burglars saw it as a sign that someone in the house was still awake.

Ours is made from black Beeswax, with a wick in each finger.

Small batch, may vary from photo.