Murray & Co and its Sunday auction: the famous ‘hammer’ of Madras nears the century mark

Any popular music consumer who scours the decades for earworms would be familiar with the phrase “Hammer time”, sung elegantly by M.C. Hammer in his “U Can’t Touch This”. In Madras and now Chennai, a different form of ‘Hammer time’ has been playing out since February 10, 1927 when Murray & Co saw the light, having been founded by brothers A. Vedantam and S. Rajam. In the 99 years plus a few months of its existence, the auction house has not given that hammer a break except for a couple of times due to inescapable situations. What does the continuity mean to those at the helm of Murray & Co? 

Hemant Srivatsa, partner, Murray & Co., responds: “We are very proud of it. We have conducted Sunday auctions almost without fail since our inception. There were a few weeks during our relocation when we had to pause, and of course, the pandemic was the longest period we could not hold auctions. Other than that, we have kept the tradition going.”

Enterprises can dig their feet in, ‘take over’ a place by imprinting their character on it. And one cannot think of that place anymore without that enterprise popping up in the mind. And then enterprises take over people’s mind space, becoming a household name. Murray & Co has done both. After being identified with one space for a long time, a bungalow behind the iconic LIC building on Mount Road, it has had to change addresses, but its hold on the mind space of the city’s residents has been unchanging and firm. 

Hemant throws light on the addresses the auction house has had to its name. “Our original auction room was located behind the LIC Building until 2012. We then briefly operated from Mandaveli before moving to our current premises at Gemini Towers, near the Gemini Flyover.”

On how the business has evolved over the years, he observes: “We started with real estate auctions. From there, we expanded into retail auctions of household goods and furniture, followed by industrial auctions. There has always been a transition as the business adapted to changing times.” 

Hemant continues: “Within the retail space, the categories have changed significantly. We sell far more electronic items today than when I joined the business in 1992. The market has evolved, and so have the items.”

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Online auctions are becoming increasingly popular. Where does Murray & Co stand in cyberspace?

“Our industrial auctions are already completely online. Our retail auctions have not fully transitioned yet, though our online portal is currently being developed. Even after it is launched, we want to continue our physical auctions because they have a charm of their own that no technology can replace,” says Hemant. And when prodded to name one transaction that has been hugely memorable for Murray & Co in the almost 100 years of its existence, Hemant refuses to take that route.

“Every single item is memorable. Every transaction is special, not just for us, but for the person who entrusted it to us and, hopefully, for the person who eventually bought it.” Have grands plans been etched to celebrate the centenary when it arrives? “Yes, the plans are still in the works. Over the next few months, we will come up with concrete ideas to celebrate the centenary.”

As Murray and Co. looks forward to its hundredth year, its greatest achievement is probably not merely its longevity, but its ability to evolve without losing sight of what makes an auction special; its people, the stories, and the bustling sounds of bids. A century on, a tradition continues, one bid at a time.