Kit Williams

Sotheby’s, Fine Jewels and Jewels for the Collector, London, 5 December 1988, Lot 498

Descent to the current owner

V&A Museum, London, as part of "British Design 1948–2012" 

Sydney Opera House, 2015

Television:

The Grand Masquerade, BBC Radio 4, 14 July 2009

The Man Behind the Masquerade, BBC 4, December 2009

Masquerade by Kit Williams, published by Jonathan Cape, 1979,

Masquerade (the treasure hunt of the century) by Kit Williams, published by Jonathan Cape 1982

Bamber Gascoigne, Quest for the Golden Hare, London, 1983

Williams, The Archive relating to Kit Williams' publishing phenomenon and worldwide treasure-hunt: Masquerade, [c. 1979], sold at Sotheby's London on 9th July, 2019 for £17,500:

The Archive relating to Kit Williams' publishing phenomenon and worldwide treasure-hunt: Masquerade, [c. 1979]

www.bbc.com

www.telegraph.co.uk

www.thetimes.com

“I thought I would do something from lost childhood and make a real treasure from gold and use riddles to lead people to it.”  Kit Williams

On the night of 7th August 1979, artist Kit Williams, with television presenter, quizmaster and author Bamber Gascoigne as his sole witness, buried a bejewelled golden hare in a secret location in Britain. So began a real-life international treasure hunt.  

The Hare was placed within a terracotta casket engraved with the legend "I am the keeper of the jewel of the Masquerade, which lies waiting safe inside me for you... or eternity,” and sealed in wax, to evade the reach of metal detectors.  

The location of the Hare could only be discovered by solving a series of complex riddles hidden within intricate pictures and verses in Williams’ book Masquerade which was published in the same month. 

“Anyone who could work out the clues could dig up Jack Hare from the cold, wet earth and keep him for themselves. This truly romantic idea went global,” says Kit Williams.

Williams had been approached by publisher Tom Maschler, of Jonathan Cape, in 1976 with a view to illustrating children’s books. As a painter, he had never thought of pursuing illustration work so turned him down. “Pity, I think you could do something with books which has never been done before”, was Maschler’s parting shot as he left Williams’ cottage.  

“His words became a worm in my brain!” recalls Williams. “What interested me most was to take the format of a book that has remained the same since Medieval times and do something completely different with it. Being an artist, I wanted to encourage people to look… and look… and look again at my paintings. Hence the idea of a hidden puzzle.”

Masquerade, ostensibly a magical children’s fable, tells of a doomed love story: the Moon entrusts to Jack Hare a love token to deliver to The Sun, the object of her passion, but somewhere on the way he loses it.

It took Williams three years to complete the 16 oil paintings that became the illustrations for the book, and the Hare, valued at around £5000 at the time it was buried, took him a month to make by hand.

“I designed and made the Jewel, including the chain, in 18 carat gold, adorned with precious stones: ruby, moonstone, citrine, turquoise, mother-of-pearl and a rare compound called faience, used by the ancient Egyptians to grace the Pharaohs. The techniques of piercing, hammering, and riveting were employed in the process largely using the hand tools inherited from my grandfather. It is the only piece in existence which bears my unique hallmark.”

The book became a world-wide sensation - the first edition sold out within two days – causing nearly two million treasure-seekers from Europe, America, Australia, South Africa and Japan to attempt to solve the puzzle that would lead them to the gold jewel prize. 

A transatlantic airline sold tickets for 10-day Masquerade Treasure Tours that included shovels and maps of Great Britain. Kit Williams was besieged by members of the public, frantic to find his buried treasure. He appeared on talk shows and toured America. Letters began to pour in, and he received phone calls in the middle of the night. Muddy people carrying spades turned up at his door.

Bamber Gascoigne observed "never before have so many people looked so intently at such rich but random material (16 paintings and some 4000 words) hoping to discern within them a hidden truth”. 

Eventually, on 24th February 1982, after two and a half years, the Masquerade Hare was finally discovered on a hilltop at Ampthill Park in Bedfordshire, at the edge of the shadow of Catherine of Aragon’s Cross.

In 1988, Sotheby’s sold the Hare in London. It was bought by a private collector and has remained within the same family ever since as a treasured heirloom. 

In 2009, Williams was reunited with Jack Hare for the BBC documentary The Man Behind the Masquerade. In 2019, to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the publication of Masquerade, Sotheby’s sold Kit Williams’ archive relating to Masquerade, including the battered blue notebook in which he worked out all the mechanics of the puzzle.

Commenting on the auction of the Hare at Sotheby’s on 28 November 2025, Kit Williams says:

“The current owners have been good and generous guardians of the Masquerade Jewel, agreeing to put it on public exhibition at the V&A Museum and at the Sydney Opera House. But Jack Hare is preparing for another leap into the unknown on his unpredictable Quest! I watch with great interest where he might land this time!”

Sotheby’s is privileged to be entrusted with the sale of the beloved Masquerade Hare for a second time.