The Stag - Ravensburger Jigsaw Puzzle

In 1990 he became the youngest ever artist to win the Federal Duck stamp contest. He won again in 1995 when his mallard painting received the first ever perfect score of 25. In 1998, Jim tied his own record by winning the 1999-2000 Federal Duck Stamp with another perfect score.

In 1991, he was commissioned by the Australian government to paint their Federal Duck Stamp, and was named Ducks Unlimited International Artist of the Year. In 1996, a life-sized stature of the artist at work was put on permanent display in the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.

Jim's artwork, his name and a likeness of his studio were used in the Academy Award winning movie "Fargo."

Jim comes from a large, artistic family of nine which includes a sister, mother, and two brothers who are also professional artists. His brothers Robert and Joseph have also won the Federal Duck Stamp Contest, in 1997, and 1992 respectively.

Ravensburger History

The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier with seat in Ravensburg, a town in Upper Swabia in southern Germany. He began publishing in 1883 with his first author contract. He started publishing instruction folders for craftsmen and architects, which soon acquired him a solid financial basis. His first board game appeared in 1884, named "Journey around the world".

At the turn of the 20th century, his product line broadened to include picture books, books, children’s activity books, Art Instruction manuals, non-fiction books, and reference books as well as children’s games, Happy Families and activity kits. In 1900, the Ravensburger blue triangle trademark was registered with the Imperial Patent office. As of 1912, many board and activity games had an export version that was distributed to Western Europe, the countries of the Danube Monarchy as well as Russia.

Before the First World War, Ravensburger had around 800 products. The publishing house was damaged during the Second World War and continued to produce games in the years of the reconstruction. The company focused on children's games and books and specialized books for art, architecture and hobbies, and from 1962 grew strongly. The company started to produce jigsaw puzzle games in 1964, and in the same year opened subsidiaries in Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In 1977 the company split into a book publishing arm and a game publishing arm.

Today there are approximately 1,800 available books and 850 games as well as puzzles, hobby products and CD-ROM titles at Ravensburger and its subsidiaries, which include Alea for "hobby and ardent game players" and FX Schmid for games and children's books. Ravensburger products are exported to more than fifty countries.

In September 2010, Ravensburger broke Educa's record for the world's largest jigsaw puzzle of 24,000 pieces. Ravensburger's new puzzle design by late pop artist Keith Haring titled, 'Keith Haring: Double Retrospect' breaks the Guinness Book of World Records measuring 17' × 6' built from 32,256 pieces and comes with its own dolly cart for toting.