Jim Rikhoff Sporting Art Collection Exhibition:

Oct. 6 – Nov. 4, 2017

Reception: Friday, Oct. 6, 2017, 5 – 8 p.m.

The Jim Rikhoff Sporting Art Collection will offer a rare opportunity to acquire a piece of sporting art with a fascinating history and a fabulous provenance.

Jim Rikhoff, who was instrumental to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, Winchester Safaris, Winchester Press, and the National Sporting Fraternity in New York and New Jersey, was an avid hunter, keen sportsman, popular writer and had an eye for art.  Over the years he and his wife, Janet, accumulated a sporting collection, including paintings, prints, and foxhunting china which has a prestigious provenance from the Leash Club and the National Sporting Fraternity of which he was the founder.  At one point, Jim Rikhoff was the “unofficial curator” for the sporting collection at the 21 Club near Fifth Avenue in New York City.

The collection includes a rare set of six antique English foxhunting prints by Henry Alken, watercolors and sketches by American artist John Groth, antique English and French equestrian prints, and the rare whimsical piece as well.  There is also a limited amount of Winchester memorabilia and several sets of foxhunting china and vintage glassware. The show runs through November 4, 2017.

Born in 1931, James Cornwall Rikhoff was Chief of Public Relations 1960-1975 at the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and later founded Winchester Press and Winchester Safaris.  He was a regular columnist for Field & Stream, Outdoor Sportsman, American Rifleman Magazine, Esquire and others.  Jim Rikhoff was also Joint Master of Hounds for the Amwell Valley Hounds in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

In March 1976, Jim Rikhoff founded the National Sporting Fraternity and its publishing arm, the Amwell Press.  The goal for his new company was to offer international sporting trips and to publish limited edition books and prints for a membership which was limited to one thousand.  Because of his popularity, he was able to get a veritable Who’s Who of international professional big game and sport hunters to write for him.  Jim Rikhoff was an experienced big game hunter and fisherman who guided expeditions around the world into his late seventies.

His books, A Mixed Bag, Hunting the Big Cats, and Fair Chase, to name a few, included collections of witty and intriguing narratives about safaris, hunting, fishing, fox hunting and wildlife.

Below is a sampling of items from the show. Please click here to see the Jim Rikhoff Sporting Art Collection Catalog.