Having started his career in the 1960s working at Harrods Auction Rooms of Sloane Avenue (in those days the department store had an estates department), in 1971 he accepted a job working for Sussex and Kent estate agents Geering and Colyer. Regular house contents sales evolved into quarterly fine art and antiques sales at the Tunbridge Wells Spa Hotel – a formula that attracted the Black Horse Group as they made widespread small-scale acquisitions in the 1980s. It was when the company was sold in 1991 that Mr Carey set up on his own, trading from Cranbrook, Kent.
Although he left the rostrum on April 26 he will continue to undertake valuation, probate and family division work and will be liaising with the fine art department of Calcutt Maclean Standen who are also based in Cranbrook.
Mervyn Carey quits rostrum
Long-time Kent auctioneer Mervyn Carey is to retire after more than four decades in the business. He held his last sale at the church hall in Tenterden last Wednesday.
