Thousands of books and curios set to go in sale

Waitaki Community Society member Bob Watherston picks out one of the estimated 10,000 books in...
Waitaki Community Society member Bob Watherston picks out one of the estimated 10,000 books in Kurow Books and Curios up for sale today. Photo by Rebecca Ryan.
Think of Kurow Books and Curios as Forrest Gump thinks about life - it is like a box of chocolates and you never know what you're going to get.

You will undoubtedly find a bargain at today's clearance sale, probably something you did not even know you needed.

Derek Workman bought the historic building, which had been vacant for several years, in the 1980s and established it as an antiques and second-hand book shop.

But after 30 years, and amassing a collection of 40,000 books, he has put an end to his work.

With a vision of buying the building to expand the Kurow Museum, the Waitaki Community Society bought all of the tens of thousands of books and antiques from Mr Workman and over the last 18 months has been slowly valuing, selling and getting rid of the stock.

A book expert from Timaru spent weeks in Kurow, evaluating each and every book of the ''staggering'' collection.

His assessment resulted in some interesting finds.

Society member Bob Watherston said regrettably, a lot of the lower category paperbacks were thrown out, along with about 10,000 magazines.

Still, more than 10,000 books line the walls of every room in the category 2 heritage building.

They include paperbacks, hard covers and magazines, all collected over the past three decades.

From 9am today, the society will hold a final clearing sale of the stock.

It includes the thousands of books which remain, old records, and a variety of other second-hand items.

Mr Watherston said nothing would be priced. Instead, the society would accept appropriate donations and all profits would go towards the purchase and renovation of the building.

''The more we sell, of course, the better the museum stands,'' he said''Everything needs to go, otherwise we'll dump it.''

Established in 1888 as the Kurow Store, the building has since served variously as a hardware and timber merchant, a stock firm and a billiard saloon.

Community support for the project to use the building as a museum expansion had been very high, he said.

Voluntary contributions estimated at $66,000 had been made to clear the building and section.

''This is a beautiful old building. We are determined to retain it for the community,'' he said.

''There have been some very interesting suggestions of how to best utilise it. Its potential is very high.''

- rebecca.ryan@odt.co.nz

 

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