”Līva” in Liepaja (1899-1939)
In 1899 Teodors and Heinrichs Antoniski were given permission to establish a bicycle factory in Liepaja.
The factory was located near Livu Square and for that reason the firm took on the brand name ‘’Līva’’. From its inception the workshop was not only involved in bicycle manufacture but also repaired typewriters and sewing machines and later also repaired automobiles and motorcycles. The firm employed 75 workers. By the First World War the Antoniski firm produced a total of 3000 bicycles.
After the First World War in 1919/1920 ‘’Līva’’ produced the first post-war bicycles. Resuming manufacturing was not easy. And so in 1922 manufacture was stopped for a fairy long time.
With the economic upswing in the 1930s the manufacturing industry bounced back and the bicycle model ‘’Līva’’ became popular throughout Latvia. The factory could produce up to 1000bicycles per year.
At the end of the 1930s the factory grew to become one of the biggest manufacturers of semi-assembled components and became suppliers not only to other amateur workshops but also to other bicycle factories as well. ‘’Līva’’ supplied spokes to the large Riga factories ‘’Omega’’ and ‘’Latvello’’ and mud guards to ‘’Latvello’’ and ‘’A. Lippert’’.
‘’Līva’’ stopped manufacturing bicycles at the end of 1939, on the eve of the Second World War as the owners repatriated to Germany.
