Holmegaard Bubble Candle Holders: Colour Trapped in Glass

Holmegaard's Bubble candle holders look like air caught inside colour: rounded glass forms in jade, sapphire and smoke, threaded onto a slim brass-look stem. This piece explains what the series is, how the four-armed centrepiece and the single holders differ, and how to mix heights along a table so the glass, not just the flame, does the work.

A 200-year-old glassworks marks its anniversary

Holmegaard was founded in 1825 on the Holmegaard bog in southern Zealand, where peat from the moor fed the furnaces. Over two centuries the glassworks has given Denmark a long list of shapes that never quite went away, from bottle forms to the vases and stemware still made under the name today. Bubble is the collection Holmegaard presented to mark its 200th anniversary, and it leans on the thing the company has always been known for: colour held in clear, mouth-blown glass.

The Bubble pieces are made from borosilicate glass, the heat-tolerant glass family also used for laboratory ware, which makes sense for an object that lives a few centimetres below a flame. Each bubble is mouth-blown, so the walls are thin and the colour reads as a tint rather than a solid. The metal parts (candle cup, central stem and base) carry a brass-look PVD coating, a thin metallic finish applied by vapour deposition. The warm gold gives the cool glass something to push against.

The trapped-air look, and why it works in candlelight

Look at a Bubble holder in daylight and you see a coloured ball. Light a candle above it and the reading changes. Because each bubble is hollow, the flame can show up twice, on the near wall and on the far wall, and the colour deepens towards the edges where you look through more glass. The centre stays clearer, so every bubble seems to hold a pocket of air with colour wrapped around it. That is the effect the series is named for.

The shapes are not identical. Some bubbles are full spheres, others are flattened into a soft lens, and the metal stem running through the middle is visible through the glass. In the two-tone holders you see one colour through the other where they meet, which is where the series is at its most painterly. Holmegaard describes the collection in terms of the interplay of colours and the reflections, and that is a fair summary: these are objects that change with the light in the room.

The four-armed holder as a small centrepiece

The Bubble 4-armed candle holder Ø17.5 cm blue/green gathers four bubbles onto one round, mirror-bright base. It measures 12 cm in height and 17.5 cm across, and weighs 0.936 kg, so it sits firmly without feeling heavy to move. The four bubbles come in jade green, smoke, sapphire blue and a deeper blue, and the candles stand at slightly different heights, arranged as a square.

That arrangement is what makes it work as a centrepiece. Seen from any side of the table, one bubble sits in front and the others step back, so the piece never looks flat. The shared base also reflects the undersides of the glass, which doubles the colour at the lowest point. At 17.5 cm wide it is compact enough for a round dining table for four, a coffee table or a deep windowsill, and low enough that people can see each other over it during dinner.

A few practical notes:

• Use four dinner candles of the same length. The height differences are already built into the holder, and matching candles keep the square composition readable.
• Give it a little room. A clear circle of table around the base lets the reflections in the brass-look tray show.
• Place it where it can be seen from more than one side. Against a wall, you lose the depth that the staggered layout creates.

Single holders: H14 and H8

The single Bubble holders take a dinner candle each and share the same 8 cm diameter, so they line up neatly on a narrow table or shelf. What changes is the number of bubbles and the height.

The Bubble Candle holder H14 cm light blue/smoke stacks two mouth-blown bubbles, a flattened light blue bubble above a round one in smoke. It stands 14 cm tall, is 8 cm in diameter and weighs 0.212 kg. The smoke glass gives the base visual weight, while the paler bubble above catches the flame directly, so the piece reads as darker at the bottom and brighter at the top, much like the light itself.

The Bubble Candle holder H8 cm green is the simplest of the group: one flattened bubble in jade green on a brass-look base, 8 cm tall, 8 cm in diameter, 0.18 kg. On its own it is a quiet, low holder for a side table or bedside. Next to taller pieces it becomes the anchor that steadies a line of glass.

Mixing heights along a table

The series is designed to be combined, and the measurements make that easy. The four-armed holder is 12 cm high, the singles are 8 cm and 14 cm, and all three share the same glass, metal finish and colour family. A few arrangements that work:

1. Centre and flanks. Put the four-armed holder in the middle of a long table and set an H14 at each end. The taller singles frame the centrepiece and carry light towards the corners.
2. Stepped line. On a sideboard or mantel, alternate H8 and H14 holders. Keep the spacing even and let the colours alternate too, green next to blue and smoke, so neither tone clusters.
3. Low and close. For a coffee table, group one H8 with the four-armed holder. The height difference is small, so the arrangement stays low and conversation-friendly.

Clear glass between the coloured pieces helps the colours breathe. The Lily Tealight holder Ø7 cm from Holmegaard is a good companion here. It is hand pressed rather than mouth-blown, 4.5 cm high and 7 cm across, shaped after the bud of a water lily, and comes in Clear, Blue Iris and Cherry blossom. A few clear Lily holders scattered between Bubble pieces add low points of light at table level and break up the rhythm of the candles. When the candles are put away, the same small bowl holds olives, nuts or a single scoop of ice cream.

Care and living with mouth-blown glass

The Bubble holders are not dishwasher safe. Holmegaard recommends wiping them with a dry, soft cloth, and washing by hand when needed. Keep the bubbles free of fingerprints and the reflections stay clean; a soft cloth over the brass-look parts keeps the coating bright. If wax drips onto the glass, let it harden fully before easing it off, rather than scraping. Lily is simpler: it can go in the dishwasher at a maximum of 55°C on a glass programme.

As with any candle holder, use drip-free dinner candles, never leave a flame unattended, and keep the pieces away from draughts that make candles burn unevenly. Treated this way, a Bubble holder settles into the routine of evenings at home: lit at dusk, wiped occasionally, and moved around the table as the season changes. For more of Holmegaard's long-lived shapes, read Regina and Klukflaske: Holmegaard Glass Shapes That Stayed, or browse the full Candles & Candleholders collection to find pieces to set beside them.