They travelled between villages selling small articles. In 1861 Nekrasov wrote the poem "Korobeiniki" (Peddlers). Lacquer artists use as subject matter two passages from the poem. In one of them a peddler's bride busy with many summer tasks is worried lest her bridegroom: it is so long to wait for the autumn wedding and he meets so many handsome maidens on his travel. To console herself, she pictures what a good industrious wife, solicitous to her husband and his parents, she will make.
In the second passage a young peddler meets a maid. He displays all his goods and begs her to pay him in kisses. The maid bargains cautiously being afraid to pay too much. In parting the peddler gives her brocade, ribbons and braids, but the maid takes nothing except a turquoise ring and says: "I don't want to go well-dressed without my sweet-heart!"

(Written and translated onto English by Vadim Shchanitsyn)