It's a kind of sublime serendipity when Pittsburgh history and the passion for brewing good beer come together in a work of art.

That's what will happen Saturday when Concept Art Gallery in Regent Square auctions a large, colorful lithograph of the old Eberhardt & Ober Brewing Co. on the North Side.

The artwork, the fourth lot to be auctioned, is dated circa 1890 and is estimated to sell for $1,500 to $2,500. It's also a nice example of history's continuum because some of the Eberhardt & Ober buildings became part of the bustling Penn Brewery, which occupies four buildings on the North Side.

Tom Pastorius, who retired last month, started the Penn Brewery 22 years ago and kept one of these lithographs hanging in his office. Another one still hangs behind the bar.

"The value of the chromolithograph depends on its condition and how it is framed. I've seen them sold at flea markets and on eBay for anywhere from $300 to $3,000," he said.

The color lithograph behind the Penn Brewery bar turned up at an auction in Buffalo, N.Y.

"A dealer in this area was going to the auction. We asked him to bid on it, and he was successful, and he brought it back for us," Mr. Pastorius said.

Every so often, he added, "Someone will walk into the brewery and have one under his arm. He's cleaning out his parents' house in Troy Hill, and he found this thing, and does it have any value?"

Mr. Pastorius was inspired by the version he kept on the wall of his office.

"It's one of the larger ones. The colors are so vivid. I've seen a lot of brewery lithos over the years. A lot of breweries had them."

He believes the lithograph originally was hand drawn by architects who were trying to sell their design to the brewery, then printed repeatedly.

North Side residents told him that when Eberhardt & Ober Brewing Co. closed its doors in the 1950s, they saw stacks of the color lithographs for sale. The gallery's Web site is www.conceptgallery.com and its telephone is 412-242-9200. Auction previews are tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Doors open at 9 a.m. Saturday. Buyers can bid in person, over the phone or on the Internet.