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Hi, I'm John Clayton, and tonight we're going to paint some pottery on New Hampshire Crossroads.

Theme Music Welcome to The Clayground in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a personalized, paint your own pottery studio.

We'll find out a lot more about this unique family business in this program.

Children learn how to paint just by doing it.

In my opinion, it's, you know, painting out of, you know, getting out of the lines.

But also on tonight's show, we're going over to Lempster, New Hampshire, site of one of the most important artistic discoveries this century.

We've been offered, at different times, quite a few million dollars for the sculpture.

One of the amazing things about this is that the experts missed it.

Then we’ll head down the road and meet some of the good eggs at the Golden Egg.

On a Sunday, we would probably go through about 90 dozen eggs.

We serve about 500 people.

Here you go.

But first, let's meet the man who's made this his own personal playground.

Music The Clayground.

We are a paint your own pottery studio, located right in downtown Portsmouth, where people come in and they find a piece of pottery that we have right off the shelves.

So I come in as the customer and I look at the array of pottery.

Do I choose the piece I want to paint, or do you help me with the choice?

You would choose what you would like because it's it's always it's a personal preference.

But, we give suggestions.

I try to help out the kids once in a while.

I try to steer the kids into some more utility pieces than the figurines most at the time.

And what I like to do is my own ice cream bowl.

And then you can do what ever colors you like inside.

And when you bring it home, you got your very own cereal bowl.

Once you got your piece, we come down here and pick up our paints.

A lot of people might not be ready to paint right away, so they might go through some ideas and pick up some idea books that we have.

We have a lot of stencils, stamps, and sponges.

But the first thing they do is they get their paints.

They'll take a tile.

They'll put a little bit, about a quarter sized amount.

And this is what they're going to use to dip their brush in and paint their, their pottery.

Music And then looking at it when it's just been painted, there is still that porous texture to it.

It doesn't have a shine.

She's still rough.

She still needs to go back into our kiln room.

We have to overglaze it and then fire it one more time.

So there is a second stage.

And are we going to see that?

Would you like to see that now?

Absolutely.

All right.

Music After the kids finish painting their pieces or the adults finish painting their pieces, we bring them back here.

Good example is we did a bridal shower last night.

They did a full dinner set.

Dinner plates, salad bowls, and they kept, it's kind of fun part about this, is they kept to the same color scheme.

So they are all different, yet they still kind of match together.

Now this is good and dry, (okay) and so we let this sit here and then what we do is we cover it in a clear overglaze.

And we just shake it off.

(blows on pottery) Now to the untrained eye, I would think that my beautiful paint has suddenly been washed over by this blue opaque material.

It's funny, when we show the kids how this works because they get really nervous.

I'll bring a four year old who’s gotten a little anxious, and we'll bring him back here and show him how it works.

And turn your piece all blue.

And the look on their face is all tense.

But then I explain to them that this is actually the clear overglaze.

So this blue opaque material will become translucent.

Yep.

Through what magical process?

What?

The kiln process.

We'll bring it up to 1800 degrees.

These kilns can go up to around 2300.

Here's something that was done with some sponges, some stamps, and the ultimate stamp, a baby’s foot.

Is that a real foot?

That's a real foot.

That's not one of your stamps.

That's a real foot.

We painted the baby's foot.

We brought it right on.

This is a gift for, it's a birthday gift for, from Zachary.

From Zachary.

I hope we haven't spoiled Zachary’s birthday surprise.

Music A little bit, that’s it, right there.

Tyler's.

There's Tyler's.

Okay.

He’s wo and a half.

Two and a half?

Two and a half.

Alright.

He did that all by himself.

Jennifer Landry has just picked up some truly original works of art by her son, Tyler.

Yes.

Jennifer, what did Tyler think about this process?

He loved it.

He just couldn't get enough of it.

He kept on dipping the paints and painting them all over and, being two and a half, he didn't care if the paints mixed or not.

He was just going to town painting.

He didn't have to stay between the lines.

No staying between the lines.

No.

Not here.

Now, were these things that will adorn his own room?

Or do they have a higher purpose?

He has painted these for Christmas gifts for his grandmother and his aunt.

He determined who will get what yet?

Yes, he has.

Shall I tell you?

I, well, Christmas is a ways off, so you probably should hold off for Tyler's sake.

Music To my mind, this is a work of art, but it can't even begin to compare to a sculpture by William Rush called Tamanend the Indian Trader.

That piece of sculpture was lost for more than 200 years, but it recently turned up in a collection in Lempster, New Hampshire.

Music William Rush was born in 1756 on the 4th of July.

William Rush was legendary for his carvings of maritime sculptures.

Rush is thought by some to be the the founding father of American sculpture.

The faces that he did on some of his sculptures.

There's kind of an ideal, perhaps almost like an angelic smile.

Peter Hill believes this 7.5ft tall figure is a William Rush carving of Tamanend the Indian Trader.

He also believes it was mounted on the bow of a merchant sailing vessel, named the William Penn, in 1791.

If that's true, it would make this sculpture a national treasure.

Well, this figure had that, this face had that characteristic smile, And I thought to myself, this must be by William Rush.

Peter Hill has had a lifelong calling, finding, researching, and placing museum quality American antiques.

He's been very successful.

I undoubtedly have significant antiques in most major American museums.

And now he believes he has found the one piece which will cap his antiques career.

He found it at an auction in San Francisco.

I had a limit and the limit was $19,000.

And so I sat at the auction for a couple of hours wondering whether someone else had perceived what this is.

And when the piece came up for auction, there was a phone bidder.

I didn't know who it was, but I thought perhaps a New York dealer.

And if that was the case, he would have gone to almost any limit if he saw what I saw.

So it went step by step, up to $18,000, and I had only one bid left.

And I made that bid, and there wasn't a succeeding bid.

One of the amazing things about this is that the experts missed it.

But first, he has to convince the rest of the world that he has indeed found a national treasure.

This has been compared, and I believe accurately compared, to our most important national treasures, such as the Star-Spangled Banner, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall, the Ship Constitution, or the document of the Constitution.

These are irreplaceable national treasures.

This has been put in that same category by certain people that that should be respected.

To help him authenticate this sculpture, Peter hired a longtime friend and neighbor, Mark Adams, who just happens to be a world class conservator.

Mark put together a team of experts, including another conservator, an art historian, a naval architectural historian, a Northeast Woodlands Indian consultant, and a sculptor.

And they all studied the piece separately, developing 26 different categories of exploration.

In fact, the research alone contains enough material for a book.

This is a typical William Rush knot in that it is tri- lobal and all of his knots all go clockwise.

If you were to find something like that, there would be a gross inconsistency.

Then you're you don't know where that's going to lead you, but you're putting together an artist's whole body of work.

When we approach this from the 26 categories, this was a dead on, perfect for William Rush and every single category.

The team also learned that this sculpture is laden with symbolism, from the outstretched hand holding a rabbit, symbolizing unlimited bounty, to the rock foundation.

The rock here, actually, it symbolizes the foundation of our nation.

This stands for the Constitution.

They also made discoveries about how Rush worked.

We can see, by examining our piece, that actually the the right ear is about three quarters of an inch lower than the left ear.

And the left lobe of the forehead is about ten degrees off of the plane of the front of the face.

We examined this along with every other accessible Rush piece, and we found that that was consistent through all his pieces.

But through that, and examining the the scroll work on some of the other pieces, we learned that, that in fact, he, he would carve one side of the piece and then he would carve the other, and he would reconcile it toward the, toward the middle.

And that accounts for these inconsistencies.

This is it, as it would have been mounted on a ship.

And this is very similar to how it would have been mounted on the William Penn.

Music And each one of these categories had to systematically be approached to see if there was an inconsistency.

Because there are fakes out there.

And, and also it's very difficult on a, on a figure like this, to absolutely ascertain the origin.

This piece actually became much easier as we went on because first of all, there were no inconsistencies.

And in fact, it is the finding of the team that it is a sculpture by William Rush.

The cost to date, plus the cost of restoration of the sculpture, is going to be in the millions to start with.

So that's kind of a, a base point.

We've been offered, at different times, quite a few million dollars for the sculpture, but because we're still in the process of completing the plan of having it eventually go to a national site, we've refused those offers.

We want people to know about it now, and we want people, especially in New Hampshire, to realize what's been going on here, hidden in a gallery in a small town called East Lempster.

Music Music We're back at The Clayground in Portsmouth.

In particular, we're in the party room, and there's a lot more to birthday parties here than cake and ice cream.

Music Ryan Burns is one of the artists in residence here today.

Tell me, Ryan, what have you got going here?

I'm making a lion cup.

So you're going with yellows and browns?

Yeah.

Yeah?

What are you going to do with the lion's face?

I don't know yet.

Well, looking at you, I'm wondering, is he going to have freckles or what?

Maybe.

Well, you got the right color scheme to work with there.

Now, is mug for you or is this a gift for someone?

No, it’s for me.

Yeah?

And what are you going to drink with that, hot chocolate in the morning or?

Yeah.

You're not a coffee guy yet, are you?

Music This is a lot of hands-on education taking place here.

There is, there is.

And it's, It's making people feel comfortable with art.

That is one of the funnest parts about the whole studio.

Children learn how to paint just by doing it.

In my opinion, it’s, you know, painting out of, you know, getting out of lines.

Just getting messy.

And they create some of the best stuff that way.

Hey, you guys have to invite - My friends had my birthday party here last year, and that kind of got me going and found myself coming back quite a bit afterwards.

As a matter of fact, I was here two weeks ago for kind of a bachelorette party for one of my coworkers.

And so, I mean, any any reason to come here is, is, you know, it'll be it's fun.

It's just a fun way to spend time.

I could drill a hole in either edge, would you like that or just leave it as it is?

I’m just gonna leave it.

Okay.

Yeah?

Music When you do come to Portsmouth and visit The Clayground, you're right in the same neighborhood as a great breakfast place called the Golden Egg.

Music Well, you know, like they say in the commercials, it's time to make the donuts.

First thing in the morning, we've gotta get the muffins in the oven.

Get them started.

But after that, we'll set up the rest of the kitchen to handle hopefully it’ll be another busy day.

Music That’s great.

Yeah.

We save a little portion just as the rest of the kitchen for all our meats for the omelet setups.

So you're heating meats here.

We're doing a Western omelet.

The ingredients go in that side, pancakes in the middle, sausage on the end.

All right, where are the eggs?

Eggs are all down in the egg station, down the other end.

Down this, this end down here.

Yeah.

Okay.

Time to check the muffins.

I guess this beats slicing them with a knife, huh?

Music Yeah, and we put them on here.

We put the spices on em.

Yeah.

Got a special home fries spice that we use.

Music Now, have you done this all, all your life?

No.

This is a, well, it's seeming like all my life now.

It's about, I've been here for eight years.

Before that, I had a tough life as a ski instructor, and then a real estate salesman.

But, the wife needed help, and here I am.

Oh, so your wife started this?

She started this 14 years ago.

So she's been - And so she she was the cook?

She was, she was, this is, this is all her.

She was the cook, the, the originator, the, the brains behind the whole operation.

And - Here you are.

I'm a muscle.

Yeah, I'm the worker.

The drone bee.

Music Now, you are, you are the owner.

Yes.

You're the, you're the - Chief slave.

The chief slave?

I'm the chief slave.

Yes.

Yeah, yeah, I do it all.

I'm in the kitchen a couple days.

I'm out front a few days, in the office a couple of days.

I do it all.

Yeah.

And that's, that's why you got to come in at 7:00.

That's right.

After all these years, I’m just like, so, you know, get a little leeway.

So, maybe you would have more of an idea of numbers and things.

Tom didn't seem to be too connected to that.

Like how many eggs, how many pounds of potatoes, etc., etc.. Well, on a weekend we could, on a Sunday, we would probably go through about 90 dozen eggs.

We serve about 500 people and we only have 50 seats.

So it makes sometimes for a wait for some of our customers.

But we have a quick turnover.

So it seems like they don't have to wait that long in line.

People are pretty patient because they think our food is good and - Think it's worth it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, you’ve eaten here.

Yeah.

I know.

I love it.

Music And now we have a farm plus American.

That's a farmer’s omelet with American and white toast.

Okay.

Half a French toast and two overeasy with well-done bacon.

All right.

And that's nice.

These are, these are relatively well-written tickets.

As that, as it gets busy and time goes on and it gets quite, What?

It gets quite hectic.

But we've learned to, to adapt and deal with it.

Okay.

Here you go.

Here's a little known fact about Tom.

He was, he was elected president of our high school class, and he went around and he cooked eggs for everyone in exchange for one vote.

And it was unanimous.

You go to high school?

Yeah, we were in the same class.

Oh, you got to get that.

We did.

We got it.

We tried to impeach him.

Music Now are burnt, are burnt fingers - Burnt fingers are part of the occupation?

Burnt fingers and (inaudible) fingers are all part of it.

Music Oh you sharpen the knives?

I sharpen the knives You come how often?

Once a week?

Once a week.

Once a week.

Yup.

Pick up the dull ones and - Pick up the dull ones and leave the nice sharp ones and so these guys don't cut themselves on a dull knife.

And it's.

What this?

Supresco?

Grinding service.

All right.

From where?

Billerica, Mass.

And your name?

Gary.

Gary, okay.

Nice to meet you.

Likewise.

27 to 10 Patriots.

Have a nice day.

Winding down a little bit here for breakfast.

Get a chance to read the paper a little bit.

Well, hopefully.

But, I haven't had much time today.

All right.

Gotta keep up on the facts figures for the, for the guests, you know?

That's true.

And everybody also always wants to know what the point spread is, you know?

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

What kind of pie is this, Debbie?

This is apple, and I'm just trying to get it to brown up evenly.

So that's why I've thrown that aluminum foil over it.

It's not quite done yet, but I don't want that top part to burn.

So I'm gonna throw the aluminum foil back over and throw it back in for a little while.

And then it - It looks chock full of apples.

I use at least 15 apples per pie.

Wow.

I like Granny Smith the best, they’re nice and tart.

My favorites.

Jeff, thanks for having us.

You're very welcome.

If you want to watch what's going on in football or any sport, you come here and ask Tom first thing in the morning.

All right?

He’s got all the statistics, all the points that you can, you can bet with.

He’s fantastic.

He's the man.

He is the man.

And you don't come in here the week after the Patriots lose.

Okay.

Because nothing tastes good.

So like next week.

That's good.

You, we hope he'll be here next week.

Here you go, Joe.

Music We got this great wine cooler that somebody did.

All shiny.

You got the overglaze came through.

Yeah.

That perfect gloss you talked about is there.

Personalized by Scooby.

Scooby.

Scooby’s piece that we're just going to put it over here and wait for people to come pick him up.

Okay, now, you've seen the process from start to finish here at The Clayground.

For Michael Harris, I'm John Clayton.

We'll see you next week on New Hampshire Crossroads.

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