Included are not only such familiar forms as plates and crocks, but also colanders, sieves, a spittoon and a political mug made around 1876 and inscribed "The Tilden and Hendricks Noggin."
The sale will also focus on other more Germanic objects, with names retaining their roots: fraktur, Haus-Segens, a 1760 Lancaster County schrank, and an Ephrata Irrgarten.
In short, the two-day sale at the gallery in Downingtown will be as Pennsylvania German as shoofly pie.
The Breiningers' interest in Pennsylvania German culture developed around 1960 when Lester, a 1957 Kutztown and subsequent Pennsylvania State University graduate, began teaching biology in Berks County's Conrad Weiser School District and quickly developed an interest in the county's Pennsylvania German history, including the region's redware pottery.
Beginning around 1965, he and Barbara, by then residents of Robesonia and early supporters of its historic Robesonia Furnace, extended their redware collecting to manufacturing and marketing their own. They widened their collecting to other area fields including pewter, coverlets, fraktur, furniture, and paintings.
"His area was mainly Berks County," Debra Pook of the family-run auction house said this week. Although both Breiningers survive, the family decided to sell the collection because of Lester Breininger's failing health, Pook said.
The 300-lot first session, beginning at 6 p.m. next Friday at the gallery at 463 E. Lancaster Ave., starts off with a bang: a circa 1810 Montgomery County incised redware charger decorated with a central bird that is expected to sell for $15,000 to $20,000, according to the auction catalog available in print and at www.pookandpook.com.
