Thirtieth Anniversary of Kit Williams’ “Masquerade”
Readers of a certain vintage will remember Masquerade. Quick summary for those who don’t: in 1979, artist Kit Williams wrote and illustrated a children’s book called Masquerade, which told the story of the journey of Jack Hare and how he lost a valuable treasure.
However, the treasure wasn’t entirely fictional. Williams also created a real treasure, a hare-shaped pendant made of gold and jewels, and buried it in a secret location. The reader of the book was invited to study the fifteen paintings within the book, to uncover the clues, and thus to reveal the location of the hare.
Unfortunately the quest to find the hare ended in a bit of a shambles, as you can read at Masquerade’s Wikipedia page. The hare was located by subterfuge rather than by solving the puzzle, and Kit Williams found that his credibility as a serious artist was undermined by the book’s commercial success.
Masquerade basically invented a whole genre of game: the armchair treasure hunt. You’ll spot the fact that Army Of Zero can trace its lineage back to Kit Williams’ work.
The important difference is that my artistic credibility within the art world is not at threat, and will probably remain at the same level no matter how popular Army Of Zero is.
Ahem.
Anyway, I’m very much looking forward to a new BBC documentary, to be shown on BBC Four in the Autumn.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Wow, used to have that book at my grandparents house when we were kids. The illustrations were truly something awesome.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Wow! Re-discovered this book while un-packing my favourites from childhood. It was given to me by my Aunt Sandy in 1979 for my ninth birthday. Living in Canada I obviously did not fit the criteria for becoming the victor, but the story itself and the magical, wonderous paintings were treasure enough. To those who coveted the book for what it truly is, not what it dangled as a carrot; read on, enjoy, and appreciate it for all it is. Thirty years later it still mystifies and the real treasure is between the covers and in the imagination of all those who sat down to read it just for the love of the act.
Kelly Field