Stevens-Duryea production began toward the end of 1901.

A light two-cylinder, five-horsepower runabout, it featured a three-speed sliding-gear transmission and wire wheels.

Stevens-Duryeas were always quality cars with prices to match.

The initial models were priced at $1,200 when popular runabouts sold for half that.

The 1905 Model R four-cylinder touring listed for $2,500 and the six-cylinder Model S of 1906 at double that figure, right up in Packard territory.

The late historian Beverly Rae Kimes described the Stevens-Duryea approach as “prestigious conservatism,” aptly echoed by the company’s motto, “There is No Better Motor Car.” Production hovered around 100 cars a year, most of them large touring and limousine models.

Though purchased in the early 1920s by a syndicate headed by Ray M.

Owen of Owen Magnetic, the company continued to build the same cars in tiny quantities as orders were received.

Orders ceased around 1927 and so did the Stevens-Duryea.

Acquired by the con...