Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. second-rate, soft cheese [it is ‘full of holes’].

1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry III iii: I say, do you hear, let’s have a twopenny burster, half a quartern o’ bees’ wax, a ha’porth o’ ingens, and a dollop o’ salt along vith it, vill you?
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 71: They took their tightener, – viz., a bag of brown lap, a brace of pickled deserters, a dab of smeerums, a nob o’pannum, a wedge of beeswax, and a go of blue .
1852		Kendal Mercury 3 Apr. 6/2: Vy, he’s second to no tyke on the pad for progging (stealing meat); ye should see him with a dollop of bee’s-wax (cheese) from a grubbing crib (provision store).
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1873		Sl. Dict. 81: Beeswax poor, soft cheese. Sometimes called ‘sweaty-toe cheese.’.
1890		C. Hindley Vocab. and Gloss. in True Hist. of Tom and Jerry 156: Beeswax. Cheese, generally Gloucester.
1913		Nottingham Eve. Post 22 Sept. 3/4: To [the Cockney] a penny roll and a slice of cheese are ‘beeswax and a buster’.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 79: Eckesley ordered a burster and beeswax for each of them, by which he meant bread and cheese.

2. as a term of address, occas. n,; the implication of one who is a bore; usu. as old beeswax [puns on SE bore, a hole].

1827		Wilmington & Delaware Advertiser 31 May 1/3: Perhaps I can prevail upon Old Beeswax to let Caesar [...] come and do the white-washing for you.
1838		Columbia Democrat (Bloomsburg, PA) 13 Jan. 4/4: Oh ho! you have come, Old Beeswax, have you?
1848		Sat. Morn. Visitor (City of Warsaw, MO) 24 June 1/1: ‘I will give you a dollar,’ said he to the old beeswax, ‘if you will [...] go over to New Jersey for me’.
1848		Boston Blade 10 June n.p.: Good bye old beeswax, till I see you.
1858		Pointe Coupee Democrat (False River, LA) 29 May 1/5: Delight at having been called ‘honey’ by the gal he loves, because she saluted him as ‘Old Beeswax’.
1863		Big Blue Union (Marysville, KS) 25 Apr. 2/5: ‘My girl,’ said a fellow [...] ‘came near to calling me honey last evening.’ ‘Indeed, how was that?’ ‘Why, she called me old beeswax.
1869		Cairo Eve. Bull. (IL) 30 July 3/3: Rosa Ann [...] called the doating Phrases ‘old Beeswax,’ [...] he was the easiest man ‘bamboozled’ she had ever ‘come it’ over.
1872		Cairo Dly Bull. (IL) 30 July 2/5: Probably no one ever surpassed old Beeswax in [...] the production of mince pies.
1882		Ottowa Free Trader (IL) 13 May 7/2: Mr FreeTrader: I would her writ before this but when the rumatiz gets hold [...] [signed] Old Beeswax.
1893		Hawaian Star (HI) 6 Oct. 6/2: ‘Oh, for some new coined name [...] to call him!’ was the prayer of Violet until she married him. Now she is content to call him Old Beeswax.
1905		Rising Sun (Kansas City, MO) 10 Feb. 3/5: ‘Does you wife still call you by the sweet names she used to?’ ‘Oh [...] she now uses [...] “old beeswax”’.
1909		D. Stewart Dead Man’s Gold in Illus. Police News 20 Feb. 12/1: ‘With a cheque for a thou. on account, old beeswax’.
1915		Luton Times 12 Mar. 2/6: If you would put five cents a day in some good savings bank, / When you are old and bent and grey, old Beeswax you would thank.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 65/2: ca. 1850–1900.