It is common for luxury labels to boast about their ancestry, their founders, their coat of arms, but few were founded in 1634 and made candles for the Sun King (Louis XIV), Marie Antoinette and Napoleon I. It’s safe to say then that Cire Trudon know a few things about wax and wicks. When burned correctly – the first burn needs to melt the whole surface of the candle, never burn for more than three hours, don’t blow out the flame but push it into the soft wax, realign and trim when needed – the superior beeswax will leave no smoke or wax traces on the Tuscany-made glass.

Cire Trudon’s candle fragrances are famously complex, distinctly un-vanilla, there’s: Carmélite, the smell of ancient and moss-laden convent walls of stone; Empire, the scent of a Napoleonic campfire with juniper and marjoram; and Manon, the candle embodiment of a Parisian laundry maid all soapy and lavender-like. But breaking with tradition for the summer collection, Les Belles Matières, comprises three single-scented candles encased in a lapis-blue glass. Each is an ode to a particular note and a particular place: Maduraï takes on the odorant Indian Jasmine sublimely milky and feminine way, Reggio takes us to Calabria and trees heavy with gently fragrant mandarins, Tadine is a sensual and smoky sandalwood from New Caledonia. We love the range’s illustrations, as fun loving as always and depicting sunglassed damsels in traditional dress, by the English painter Lawrence Mynott. The designs are a whimsical reminder of a summer yet to come, embodying the brand’s quintessential insouciance. After all, these are just candles, although they are deliciously fine ones at that.

Cire Trudon scented candles, 270g, are £78 from Selfridges.