CHEVY CHASE, Md. — When a bidder with a magic wand entered Sloans & Kenyon on July 26 it was a tip-off this wasn’t going to be a typical day in the auction business. Not your normal estate liquidation, the term “paranormal” would best describe the event when personal property from the late psychic Jeane Dixon was offered.

It was a sale when the occult meshed with traditional religion and inexpensive box lots of mundane household goods, books and ephemera shared the venue with valuable 18th century European furnishings, crystal balls, over four dozen crosses and crucifixes, native war bonnets, and formal wear for a magic cat.

The internationally-known clairvoyant died in 1997 but her fans, friends and believers remembered her and waited in line for the doors to open at 11 a.m. for a chance to own a part of her, whether as star memorabilia or for the power the object may contain.

There were more bidders than chairs in the intimate gallery space.

Some biographies say she was born Lydia Emma Pinckert in Medford, Wis. The family relocated to California and Pinckert married real estate investor James Dixon in 1939. They moved to Washington, D.C.

Raised Catholic, Dixon believed her visions and ability to predict were gifts from God. Although a spiritual person, Dixon wasn’t averse to fibbing about her age. When she died in January 1997 many obituaries stated she was 79 because she had always given her birth year as 1918. Later it was learned she was born in 1904 and was actually 93.

Dixon began her rise to prominence after the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963. She had gone on record in a Parade Magazine article on May 13, 1956, stating not only a Democrat would win the 1960 election but would die in office. Kennedy’s death gave birth to Jeane Dixon, the psychic newspaper columnist, author of seven books, and consultant to the famous.

Dixon became a White House consultant, a fact unknown until Nancy Reagan admitted in a 1988 interview that she sought advice from astrologers when planning President Reagan’s schedule following his 1981 assassination attempt. It is reported that psychic Joan Quigley replaced Dixon. During the Nixon administration, Dixon had warned him of a terrorist attack. It came 30 years later.

In 1942 Dixon told actress Carole Lombard (Mrs. Clark Gable) not to fly during her war bond promotion because her plane would crash. It did. In 1953, she said on NBC television that a silver ball would rise from Russia and go into space. Sputnik was launched four years later.

Some wrong predictions made people wonder if the battery was low in her crystal ball. She said World War III would start in 1958 with China over a dispute involving two off shore islands, Russia would put the first man on the moon, a female U.S. president would be elected in the 1980s, and a comet would strike the earth during that decade. She said a Messiah-type child would be born in the Middle East in 1962 and bring peace to all mankind. (He would be 47 now and people are still waiting.)

Jeane and James Dixon had no heirs. Upon her death their property passed to their friend and banker, Leo Bernstein. He transported the goods to Strasburg, Va, where he opened the Jeane Dixon Museum. In a July 2002 review of the museum, The Washington Post cleverly described the display as “A Medium Well Done.”

After Bernstein’s death earlier this year, the museum closed and the Dixon estate needed to be sold. News of the sale on July 26 earned Sloans & Kenyon substantial free publicity. Washington, D.C. TV stations previewed it, The Washington Post gave it Page One treatment in the entertainment section, and clairvoyant websites and forums nationwide announced the event.

Auction company president Stephanie Kenyon said they had many first-time bidders among 438 registered. She attributed the sale’s popularity to Dixon’s notoriety. “We live in a celebrity-driven culture,” she said.

Kenyon said the mix of international merchandise reminded her of “an old fashioned European type of estate” with its blend of continental, Asian, South American, and mid-century American goods. This type of estate was common in Washington until about 30 years, she said. “I got into the business at the tail end of these kinds of grand estates,” she said, delighted she could be a part of one again.

Did anyone feel Jeane Dixon’s presence? Ellen Garrity, communications director, said several staff members during setup told her of having “weird dreams” where natural disasters occurred. Garrity said she often felt someone was standing right behind her.

Among the auction’s highlights, a 19th century seven light chandelier from which Dixon said she received visions sold for $1,792 to a buyer in New Orleans. The same bidder bought an ornate French bed that Dixon said once belonged to Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. It sold for $4,481.

A bidder in Palm Beach, Florida, paid $11,053 for a Charles X ebony inlaid satinwood barrel-back arm chair that carried only a $500-$700 estimate. “Seven people knew what it was,” said Garrity. A large, carved Victorian etagere sold for $5,975 to an East Coast dealer.

Dixon’s jewelry and clothing were also available. Five pieces of sterling that included pins, bracelets and a ring sold for $155. A gypsy fortune teller outfit brought $203. A gold-sequined evening gown by Bob Mackie was $1,314. Five colorful straw hats by Chanel went for $239.

The sale drew international bidders. A man in Australia bought a pair of antique embroidered liturgical stoles for $268.87. A man on the phone from England paid $3,465 for a 44in Italian carved marble figure of Venus. A bidder calling from Russia paid $5,975 for a Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God on panel.

Despite strong prices in general, there were still deals. Three art deco dresser bottles went for $95. A 36 by 28in portrait of Dixon signed Rubino brought just $29. Four rural landscape watercolors by Paul Severson went to for $41.82. A 19th century American school oil on canvas of a bearded gentleman brought $29.

Other art did very well. Still Life with Apples, Grapes and Nuts by James Henry Beard doubled its high estimate, bringing $3,107. Frolicking Cherubs, a 19th century European oil on canvas, went for $4,182. Temptation by Swede Bernhard Osterman sold for $10,157.50. Painted in 1873 by John Linton Chapman, Claudian Aqueduct sold above estimate at $8,663.

The auction grossed $312,349 with the 19.5 percent buyer’s premium. Sloans & Kenyon’s next auction will take place Sept. 25-27.