News-Antique.com - Dec 27,2011 - MERIDEN, Conn. – The Brechlins are home for the holidays and will celebrate as the Connecticut family’s Nest Egg Auctions presents its annual Gala Holiday New Year’s Auction on Saturday, Jan. 7. The sale will begin at 2 p.m. Eastern time.
Those attending the 209-lot auction will be offered festive hospitality, with complimentary food and drink; and live music.
“Everyone comes to our New Year’s auction,” said auctioneer Ryan Brechlin. “Hey, free shrimp!”
Along with the food and entertainment, guests will be able to enjoy previewing an outstanding lineup of antiques and collectibles on display prior to the auction.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding for those who cannot attend the sale, which will be held at Nest Egg Auctions’ gallery at 30 Research Parkway in Meriden.
Ryan Brechlin will oversee the event together with his sister Jennifer Brechlin and their mother Mary Ellen Brechlin. All three family members work full time for the second-generation auction house. Present in spirit will be the family patriarch, Carl Brechlin, who died in 2008.
The Jan. 7 auction will be Nest Egg’s first sale of 2012. What better way to ring in the New Year than with a late-19th-century Tiffany & Co. grandfather clock that stands an impressive 100 inches tall and has all the bells and whistles expected of a fine Tiffany timepiece.
“It has a good German movement [Winterhalder & Hofmeier] and a beautifully carved mahogany case,” said Ryan Brechlin. “It’s enormous. People who want a Tiffany clock like them big.”
With a sun and moon dial, eight bells and Westminster chimes – all in running condition – the clock is estimated at $3,000-$5,000.
Another large mechanical marvel in the sale is a Model 92 National cash register, which was custom made for a New York department store, Barton & Hoysradt, around 1902. The register is fully functional and includes all keys and its original instruction book. The entire piece – register and attached cabinet – measures approximately 19 1/2 inches by 26 inches by 36 inches and has a $1,000-$2,000 estimate.
“It’s a cool piece, one of the biggest registers National made. The drawers all integrated to the different departments in the store,” said Brechlin.
Another choice mechanical device in the auction is a Mills Novelty Co. American War Eagle nickel slot machine from the mid-1930s. From an Old Saybrook, Conn., estate, the classic one-arm bandit in working order is expected to make $1,000-$2,000.
The auction’s high point may come with the introduction of a Guy Carleton Wiggins (American, 1883-1962) oil-on-board painting of the New York Library in a winter storm. The artwork executed in quintessential Wiggins style carries a $5,000-$10,000 estimate.
“It has everything you want in a Guy Wiggins painting – New York in winter, snow and American Flags,” said Brechlin. “This one has two flags.”
Brechlin noted that the 12-inch by 16-inch Wiggins painting is from the Alfred Cheney Johnston Collection. Johnston was a famed New York City-based photographer known for his portraits of Ziegfeld Follies showgirls
