"Most vintage people are collectors of something. For a collector, there are usually one or two buy-on-sight items we each have our eyes trained for," Rita Larson says, from her rural Starbuck home. "I’m currently collecting paint-by-number horse pieces."

Paint-by-number kits were popular in the 1950s and 60s, having premiered at the New York Toy Fair in 1951. When not on the hunt for horse paintings, Larson is primarily focused on "primitive" pieces: furnishings and ornaments made from pine. "Pine was the poor man’s furniture when the frontier was settled. A softer wood was what they could afford, not the hard woods that were deemed more desirable."

Early craftsmen would disguise the simplicity of the pine with flour-based clay, formed into decorative flowers or designs, then stained along with the pine to more closely resemble mahogany or oak. Primitive pieces were “not considered the quality pieces in their day, but they’re the beautiful pieces we are discovering now," Larson says, "with the benefit of perspective and history."

Browse the Larson collection at the upcoming market and take home an item that might show the marks of age: clay on pine and a piece of history.