Stevens Auction to sell contents of antebellum mansion Oct. 20

ABERDEEN, Miss. – The contents of the historic Adams French Mansion, belonging to Stevens Auction Co. founder Dwight Stevens, will be sold on the grounds of the mansion itself on Saturday, Oct. 20, starting at 9 a.m. Central time. The sale will be conducted by Stevens Auction Co., also based in Aberdeen. A detailed video of the mansion’s interior can be seen online, at www.adamsfrenchmansion.com. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

The auction will consist of most of Stevens’s 38-year antique collection, which includes several private warehouses of highly collectible cars, guns, antique furniture, crystal, 19th-century lighting, antique Persian rugs, sterling silver, bronze sculptures, clocks, original artwork, antique porcelain, mantel mirrors and other furnishings from the opulent, 7,000-square-foot home.

While there is a potential buyer for the Adams French Mansion, it is still available for sale, at $750,000. Interested parties may call Dick Leike of Crye-Leike Realtors, at 901-486-2070. “I have over a million dollars invested in Adams French and its grounds,” said Stevens. “I hope to find a buyer who will take over the mansion and a church on the four-acre property and will share with the community by opening it to pilgrimage and community events for years to come.”

The church is an interesting story. It was originally built in 1905, about four miles away, by freed slaves who called it the James Creek Missionary Baptist Church. When Stevens learned that a group was looking to raze the church in 2005, he offered to move the structure to his mansion grounds. The move was documented on an episode of the Home & Garden channel.

The fine art category contains what could be the auction’s top lot: a large oil on canvas done in the manner of Winslow Homer (1836-1910), the famous American landscape and marine artist. The 50-by-75-inch work, depicting a woman at a New England seashore, nicely framed, has museum labels on the back for the Manhattan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Stevens hasn’t had the work authenticated. He purchased it in the Boston area around 1985.

Additional artworks will feature a French life-size oil on canvas painting of a captain in uniform, done circa 1918, signed and large at 94 inches tall by 57 inches wide; and a pair of oil on canvas landscape and valley scenes, signed “S. Barnes,” both from the Zoe Spedell estate in Louisiana.

The classic cars will feature a fully restored 1928 Oldsmobile Huckster woody pickup and a 1950 Studebaker Champion, also restored, with fresh paint, new interior and air conditioning.

Monumental beds will include a rosewood rococo three-quarter tester bed by Prudent Mallard of New Orleans, circa 1855, 11 feet 1 inch tall by 67 inches wide and 80 inches long; and a William McCracken full tester plantation bed, 9 feet 8 inches tall by 60 inches wide by 72 inches long.

Fine furniture will feature a rosewood Victorian etagere with white marble, having no missing parts and in mint condition, 8 feet 6 inches tall; a rosewood rococo center table by Meeks with white marble; and an eight-piece rosewood rococo laminated parlor suite by Henkel in mint condition.

Decorative items will be led by a pair of early Sevres capped urns with bronze mounts and a courting scene, signed and each 12 inches tall; an early bronze and porcelain Sevres center bowl, 12 inches by 18 inches; a pair of early Old Paris mantel vases with satyr handles, 19 inches tall; and a matched pair of polychrome blackamoors on marble stands.

Lamps and lighting will light up the crowd with lots that include an early bronze and marble astral lamp with etched harp shade, 27 inches tall; a bronze mid-19th-century astral lamp (below), all original, with no drill to tank, 21 inches tall; and a pair of early whale oil lamps with dragon décor on the shades, 35 inches tall.

The firearms category will feature a pair of Thompson World War II-era weapons, one a .45 ACP tommy gun (one lot, est. $7,500-$10,000); a Colt .45 caliber six-shot single-action revolver (below) with a manufacture date by serial number of 1878 (est. $12,000-$25,000); an 1851 Navy Yank .36 caliber six-shot revolver with a scene of the Texas Navy in a battle with Mexican forces (est. $1,200-$1,800); and a Colt .45 caliber six-shot single-action Army revolver with ivory grips, manufactured in 1890 (est. $4,500-$10,000).

For details contact Stevens Auction Co. at 662-369-2200 or stevensauction@bellsouth.net.