'Once upon a perfect night, unclouded and still, there came the face of a pale and beautiful lady. The tresses of her hair reached out to make the constellations, and the dewy vapours of her gown fell soft upon the land.....'
This book belonging to my mother and the artwork inside it has always intrigued me and somehow I never researched it until today looking for inspiration for an art project...Spring Equinox magical coincidences...
If you are not aware of Kit Williams, please seek him out as his art is truly mystical and mysterious and all the story behind it is ever so majestic...
Masquerade is a picture book, written and illustrated by Kit Williams, published in August 1979, that sparked a treasure hunt by concealing clues to the location of a jewelled golden hare, created and hidden somewhere in Britain by Williams. The book became the inspiration for a genre of books known today as armchair treasure hunts.
In March 1982 Williams received a sketch which he considered a good enough solution to the puzzle. The golden hare was located by a "Ken Thomas" (a pseudonym of Dugald Thompson) who knew John Guard whose then girlfriend, Veronica Robertson, had once lived with Williams. It later transpired that they had not fully solved the puzzle but used her knowledge that the hare was buried somewhere in Ampthill which led to a minor scandal. Two British physics teachers were later acknowledged to have correctly solved the puzzle
Masquerade is the quintessential armchair treasure hunt book: beautiful to look at and filled with many small, easy puzzles as well as one large one that is nigh impossible to solve.
