In A Can of Paint by A. E. van Vogt, the first landing on Venus finds a simple can of paint. But is it really simple, or an advanced alien artifact? Then we touch on the writing techniques of A. E. van Vogt and others.
Links:
A Can of Paint by A. E. van Vogt [Astounding, September 1944]:
https://archive.org/details/Astounding_v34n01_1944-09
Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak [1952]:
https://archive.org/details/ringaroundsun00sima
Wikipedia entry on Lester Dent:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Dent
The Twonky movie [1953]:
https://archive.org/details/twonky-1953-colorized
