Masquerade Artwork (1979)

I have such fond memories of this strangely occult and pagan-themed book, which I remember leafing through with amazement whilst at Junior school. After decades mostly out of the public eye, the iconic treasure from Masquerade resurfaced on the market and now belongs to a collector once more. In November 2025, Sotheby’s offered the same golden hare at auction again. The pendant originally sold for £31,900 in 1988, but this time it fetched £82,550, well above its pre-sale estimate. It was bought by a private collector in Great Britain.

Masquerade is a beautifully illustrated puzzle book created in 1979 by the English artist Kit Williams. At first glance it looks like a whimsical fairy tale about a small hare named Jack who travels through a dreamlike world, but every page is quietly doing something else: hiding clues. Williams embedded riddles in the paintings, borders, and lettering so that careful readers could piece together a set of directions leading to a real, physical treasure.

That treasure was a small golden hare pendant, made of 18-carat gold and decorated with jewels. Williams buried it somewhere in the English countryside and announced that whoever solved the puzzle in the book could claim it. The idea captured the public imagination. Hundreds of thousands of people studied the illustrations with magnifying glasses, looking for patterns, hidden words, and visual jokes that might reveal the location. After nearly three years, the hare was found in Ampthill Park in Bedfordshire, though the circumstances of its discovery later caused controversy, since it was revealed that the finder had been tipped off rather than having fully solved the puzzle as intended.

The book itself became a cultural phenomenon. It essentially invented what is now called the “armchair treasure hunt,” a genre where readers try to solve elaborate puzzles from home using only what is hidden in a book. Even today, Masquerade is admired not just as a clever game but as a work of art, full of intricate, symbolic paintings that reward close attention.

Kit Williams, the creator of Masquerade, was born in 1946 in Kent, England. Trained as an artist, he wrote and illustrated the book entirely on his own, combining traditional painting techniques with a love of riddles, myths, and visual storytelling. After the success of Masquerade, he went on to design elaborate mechanical clocks for public buildings and continued working as a fine artist, producing detailed figurative paintings in oils. His reputation rests largely on how he merged art, story, and puzzle into a single experience, turning a picture book into one of the most famous real-world treasure hunts in history.

Young America’s Dilemma (1901)

The cartoon “Young America’s Dilemma (Shall I be Wise and Great, or Rich and Powerful?)” is a chromolithograph by Louis Dalrymple that appeared as an illustration in Puck magazine in 1901. It was published in New York by Keppler & Schwarzmann, the firm that owned and issued Puck at the time.

Regrettably, America made its decision.

Before the Diversity Editors Arrived I

 

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (1888–1960)

Ida Rentoul Outhwaite (1888–1960) was one of Australia’s most beloved illustrators, best known for her enchanting depictions of fairies, elves, and the natural world. Her work helped shape early 20th-century Australian children’s literature and remains admired for its delicate beauty and imaginative charm.

Born Ida Sherbourne Rentoul in Melbourne, she grew up in a creative and literary family. Her father, the Reverend Dr. John Laurence Rentoul, was a noted Presbyterian minister and academic, and her sister, Annie R. Rentoul, became a writer. The two sisters often collaborated; Annie writing the stories and Ida illustrating them. From a young age, Ida showed remarkable artistic talent; her first published illustration appeared when she was just 15.

Outhwaite rose to prominence during the Edwardian and interwar periods, when fairy art and children’s fantasy were enjoying great popularity. Her illustrations often featured ethereal fairy figures nestled in distinctly Australian landscapes; among gum trees, native flowers, and animals like koalas and kookaburras. This blend of European fairy imagery with Australian flora and fauna gave her work a unique identity.

Some of her most famous works include “Elves and Fairies” (1916), “The Enchanted Forest” (1921), “Fairyland” (1926), and “The Little Green Road to Fairyland” (1922). These books combined her luminous pen-and-ink drawings and watercolours with stories by her sister Annie or other collaborators. Elves and Fairies in particular was a landmark; one of the first large-format art books printed in Australia, and an expensive luxury edition at the time, now highly collectible.

In 1909, Ida married Arthur Grenbry Outhwaite, who became both her supporter and a frequent collaborator; some works were credited jointly to “Grenbry and Ida Rentoul Outhwaite.” Together they had four children, who occasionally served as models for her fairy illustrations.

Her art is characterised by fine, detailed linework and soft washes of colour, creating an otherworldly but tender atmosphere. Critics have often noted her ability to balance whimsy with a sense of quiet realism; her fairies seem to belong to the bush as naturally as any native bird. This helped root fantasy art in an Australian sensibility and made her a pioneer of what might be called Australian fairy imagery.

By the late 1930s, her style fell somewhat out of fashion as modernism took hold, and she produced fewer works after World War II. However, her illustrations remain iconic in Australian visual culture. Today, original Outhwaite books and prints are treasured collectors’ items, and her influence can still be seen in Australian fantasy illustration.

Bohemian Budgie's 10th Birthday !

Shitting crikey!

I can't believe 10 years have passed since I started this whacky project; a leap in the dark without any undies on; a mere mouse dropping on the floor of social media. And yet, who would have thought, like an irradiated cockroach I would out-survive Twitter. It is the earnest desire of The Bohemian Budgie to outlast all forms of corporate capitalism and become an indelible beacon of light which radiates out to the universe like a pulsar until aliens send an anarcho-syndicalist rescue party, and arrive in giant disco ball spacecraft, dressed in crushed pink velvet jackets , zebra skin wide brimmed hats, orange floral shirts with 12" collars and giraffe patterned leather pants. I fervently believe this will happen, and the planet will be saved due to the humble ponderings of this blog. 

Frank R. Paul (1884-1963)

The artwork of Frank R Paul is of course quite retro for sci-fi illustration, compared to modern day standards, but I think that's what gives it such naive appeal. I say naive, but it is arguably more advanced than contemporary sci-fi illustration, I expect because Frank R Paul was right in the middle of the post-war upswing in science & tech which was so creatively infective. His imaginative etchings ooze futuristic optimism in a way we fail to do. To Frank R Paul, the future was rich in possibility and daring. To us, living through this shit, each day is just another dystopian keystroke recorded on a surveillance server somewhere in Iceland. 

I Have the Best Words

I had promised not to give the logicidal idiot Trump the oxygen of publicity. Yet now he has been roundly rejected by 80 million people and is retreating from the stage like a tapeworm back to the warmth of its home rectum, I dont mind sharing some of the funniest memes I have encountered throughout his reign.