Hammer falls for the last time at auction rooms

Jul 31 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

THIRD-GENERATION auctioneer Mike Litherland will today perform his last-ever sale in one of the city’s oldest auction rooms.

When a developer made him an offer he could not refuse for the premises, there was a two word reply ... “flog it”.

So after a century of selling everything under the sun, the hammer will come down for a final time today at Outhwaite and Litherland’s famous Kingsway Galleries in Fontenoy Street.

The quarter-acre city centre site will be used as a car park during the 2008 Capital of Culture celebrations, and then there will be an office block constructed on the site.

Mr Litherland’s three loyal staff have been given the option to find new premises in the city to carry on the famous name that first appeared in 1907 when his grandfather, Henry, and his business partner launched the business.

They moved to Fontenoy Street in 1946 when their old sale room was bombed during the air raids on Liverpool. It had been built as a church hall, possibly for nearby St Mary’s, also a victim of the Blitz.

Last night, Mr Litherland, 52, said: “I am happy that the business has reached its centenary, and now I am taking a new direction. I have been an auctioneer here for 37 years and it has been a wonderful job. I am not retiring and may still do work as an auctioneer.

“But from now on I will be concentrating on valuation work from our office in Southport. There is a growing business in valuations from banks and insurance companies and for the legal profession.

“Somebody came along and made me an offer for the site and it took me all of a nanosecond to agree. I won’t disclose the price, but let us say there were a lot of noughts.”

Other the years, the Litherlands have sold tens of thousands of items, from antique furniture to unusual lots.

One of the most unusual was a war-surplus consignment of anti-submarine copper wire. It went under the hammer for a million pounds.

The rise in television programmes has raised interest in old objects, but there has also been a downside to the media frenzy for auctions.

Said Mike: “Just last week the producers of Flog It! called to say they were looking for new auction rooms for their show and was I interested. I told them it was too late as I had just flogged it – the showroom I meant.”

“The show has generated interest but within the industry they also present a jaundiced view of auction sales. It is quite hyped up and can often give people a false sense of what something is worth.

“ I have always prided myself on being honest with people when it comes to valuations and estimates because I have never wanted to build up hopes.

“When they tell me that on one of the television shows a similar item was valued it at five or ten times the sum I reply they are not selling the stuff as I do. I could just as easily value things even higher, but that is not the way I have worked.

“The three lads who work here, Dave, Colin and Tom, will have the chance to set up themselves and I have said they can use the family name on licence. I hope it will work out for them.”

Mr Litherland invested in his own pub, the award-winning Derby Arms in Aughton.

“We have had a good century as a business and now it is time for a change,” he said.

larryneild