The Griswold Inn is located in Essex, Connecticut and is one of the oldest continuously run inns in the United States. It was founded by three brothers in the late 18th century and named after the Griswold Family of the area, and it has been under the stewardship of only six families. British troops captured it during the War of 1812 and used it as a base of operations. During Prohibition , it still maintained a lively entertainment schedule for the local yachtsmen. Over the years, several surrounding buildings were added to the inn complex, each with its own history. It was also used as a filming location for the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows .
7-490: The walls of the inn hold numerous historical artifacts. Paintings are prominently displayed of famous vessels from the ages of sail and steam, and the Gun Room has a collection of rare firearms. The inn has the largest privately held collection of the works of Antonio Jacobsen , the country's most prolific painter of maritime art. The tavern serves New England cuisine . It serves lunch and dinner on most days, and it features
14-721: A special Hunt Breakfast on Sundays, a convention which has existed for approximately two hundred years. The Tap Room was built in 1735 as a schoolhouse, but today it offers drinks and casual food as well as live entertainment. The Griswold Inn is known for hosting sea music performances. The Inn has hosted chantey nights for over 50 years and is one of the venues of the Connecticut Sea Music Festival. 41°21′5.8″N 72°23′12.5″W / 41.351611°N 72.386806°W / 41.351611; -72.386806 Antonio Jacobsen Antonio Nicolo Gasparo Jacobsen (November 2, 1850 – February 2, 1921)
21-471: The 1940s in the offices of the family ship repair business. On February 19, 2006, Fetching The Mark , an unsigned painting of the racing yacht Dreadnought attributed to Jacobsen, was sold at auction for $ 281,000, more than triple the highest price previously paid for one of Jacobsen's works. The piece had been brought to an Antiques Road Show event in Tampa, Florida , and had originally been thought to be
28-602: The artist's ship paintings. The public rooms of The Griswold Inn in Essex, Connecticut , the oldest continuously run tavern in the United States, features the largest privately held collection of Jacobsen's paintings. John McMullen , a naval architect and marine engineer (and former owner of the New Jersey Devils ), had a collection that included 75 paintings by Jacobsen, the first two of which were found in
35-415: The world. Jacobsen got his start painting pictures of ships on safes, and as his reputation grew, he was asked to do portraits of ships by their owners, captains and crew members, with many of his works selling for five dollars. Jacobsen painted more than 6,000 portraits of sail and steam vessels, making him "the most prolific of marine artists". Many of his commissions came from sea captains, and Jacobsen
42-817: Was a Danish-born American maritime artist known as the " Audubon of Steam Vessels". Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen , Denmark where he attended the Royal Academy of Design before heading across the Atlantic Ocean. He arrived in the United States in August 1873. He settled in West Hoboken, New Jersey (now Union City, New Jersey ), across the Hudson River from Manhattan and New York Harbor , its port filled with ships from America and around
49-718: Was chosen both for the accuracy of his work and his low fee. Exhibitions of Jacobsen's work include a 1996 showing of 45 of his paintings at the National Museum of American History . In 1995, the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia held an exhibition that included 80 paintings by Jacobsen. In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum published a volume by Harold S. Sniffen, the museum's curator emeritus, whose biography titled Antonio Jacobsen's Painted Ships on Painted Oceans , includes some 100 color pictures of
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