Hundreds of paintings, pieces of furniture and other artistic creations that span nearly 400 years of state history will become part of a permanent gallery at the North Carolina Museum of History when the exhibit opens Saturday.

"Pleasing to the Eye: The Decorative Arts of North Carolina" contains items ranging in age from a childhood portrait painted in 1639 of King Charles II of England to a cup and saucer created in 1994 by a sixth-generation North Carolina potter.

"The collection started not so much as objects saved for decorative and ornamental value but for historical value," said Patricia Marshall, curator of furnishings and decorative arts at the museum. "It represents what people in North Carolina used."