The Golden Hare

Writes SquirralBasket:

. . . One of the most amazing pieces of hare jewellery ever must surely be the golden hare pendant with tinkling bells made by Kit Williams as the prize for solving his “treasure hunt” book Masquerade, published in 1979 . . . It was a picture book containing cryptic clues and riddles that eventually led to the jewel, buried in a crock in the shadow of Catherine of Aragon’s Cross at Ampthill in Bedfordshire.

Tens of thousands of questers all over the world tried to find the treasure but in the end it went to someone who (it was later found) had inside knowledge, which was a terrible shame, as around the same time someone else had actually solved all the riddles and worked out the answer for real.

For several decades now Kit Williams has lived as a recluse, but carried on painting, some of his work being of a rather “titillating” nature but still beautifully detailed and colourful.

The BBC did a fascinating TV programme about him last year, in which he was reunited with his fabulous golden hare.

– "From Mad March Hare to Golden Hare"

SquirrilBasket

March 14, 2010

Related Off-site Link:
Return of the Golden Hare: It captivated Britain – An Epic Treasure Hunt for a Beautiful Jewel Buried in a Cow Field – Jane Fryer (MailOnline.com, August 25, 2009).

Mon Bel Ami

Image: The Leveret

Leap

Notes AirportTechnology.com: 'Leap' is a 56ft red hare designed by artist Lawrence Argent and located in Terminal B of the Sacramento International Airport.

Image 1: Jason A. Knowles.
Image 2: Photographer unknown.

Olympic Male Beauty (Part II)

Above: U.S. wrestler Jordan Burroughs.

Above: U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps.

Above: British gymnast Louis Smith.

Above: French swimmer Camille Lacourt.

Above and left: South African sprint runner Oscar Pistorius.

Above: Canadian diver Alexandre Despatie.

Above: Italian heavyweight boxer Clemente Russo.

Above: U.S. swimmer Nathan Adrian.

Above: U.S. track athlete Nick Symmonds.

Above: Australian diver Matthew Mitcham.

Above: The U.S. rowing team. From left: Glenn Ochal, Henrik Rummel, Charles Cole and Scott Gault.

See also the previous posts:

Olympic Male Beauty (Part I)
The "Sheer Magnificence" of Ricky Berens' "Pretty Good Show"
Wrestling: : "The Heterosexually Acceptable Form of Homosexual Foreplay"
The Domain of Eros
In the Arena

On Sicilian Coins . . .

Images of hares can be found on a wide range of Greek artifacts: on amphorae, bowls, dishes and bronze vessels; on wedding and other rings; necklaces, mirror surrounds, in mural paintings; in the form of zoomorphic scent bottles, and on coins. The motif of eagles, feeding on or carrying off a hare appears on numerous Greek coins. But it also takes place there with many other designs including hares. On Sicilian coins of the fifth century BC there are single, gracefully designed leaping hares; a hare leaping over a dolphin above a wave; a hare over a grasshopper, and another over a fly; a hare over an ear of corn, Nike above; a hare springing over a scallop shell; and another with Pan sitting on a rock. There is also a hare with a dolphin below and a cock above it; a hare springing between a shell and a hippocampus; and a hound standing, head averted, with an inverted hare below. Though the last of these is merely naturalistic, a hunting scene, and though some of the others clearly allude to naturalistic attributes of the creature (chiefly its speed and athleticism, relating it to the dolphin, grasshopper and fly as well as Nike) the presence of the ear of corn also signifies its symbolic association with fertility and increase, just as the presence of Pan alerts us to the association of the hare with the gods and goddesses of the wild and of the chase.

– Simon Carnell

Hare

pp. 59-60

Olympic Male Beauty

Above: A member of the Australian men's water polo team.

Above: Philipp David Boy of the German men's gymnastics team.

Above and below: British driver Tom Daley.

Above: Jake Dalton of the U.S. men's gymnastic team.

Above and below: Brazilian swimmer Marcelo Chierighini.

Above: Swedish decatlete Bjorn Barrefors.

Above: A member of the Greek men's water polo team.

Above: American swimmer Ryan Lochte.

Above: Cameron Van Der Burgh (right), after winning the 100m breaststroke (and breaking the world record time for it).


NEXT: Part II


Related Off-site Links:
Olympics or Gay Porn? — Stacy Lambe (BuzzFeed.com, August 1, 2012).
Boardies, Budgie Smugglers and Euro-Togs — Michael Bayly (The Wild Reed, February 1, 2011).

See also the previous Leveret post:
The "Sheer Magnificence" of Ricky Berens' "Pretty Good Show"
Wrestling: : "The Heterosexually Acceptable Form of Homosexual Foreplay"
The Domain of Eros
In the Arena