Creel’s NYC and Millbrook locations sell everything from exclusive jewelry made just for the shop by small designers to rare antiques. Lately, he’s been selling a lot of polished lapis, fossils, deconstructed lobsters, and taxidermy. Indeed, there can be a macabre side to the cabinet of curiosities. “I know it’s not exactly the most politically correct thing in the world, but we’ve sold a lot of peacocks recently…. A lot,” he adds.
In a hyper-digital world, the cabinet of curiosities sort of feels like a small rebellion against AI and the algorithm. After all, the original cabinets of curiosities once served as physical beacons of knowledge, often allowing guests to touch items. “It’s very likely that someone would, for example, try on something like a feathered cape because, as you were a visitor to the collection, one of the things that was encouraged was interacting with the objects physically,” Hill notes.
Allen believes that “collections should be living things; I think the trick is to keep it moving and changing, and invite interaction from visitors.” Building and growing your very own cabinet of curiosities is one definite way to get away from doomscrolling. After all, those trinkets aren’t going to find themselves.
Tangier has long been a hub for proverbial black sheep—rock stars, artists, and hippies. But now the port city is drawing in a new crowd of ultra-sophisticated residents
Hand-blown mercury glass Mirrored Raindrops hang above the bed, which is upholstered in a Soane stripe and draped with a Suzani quilt from Creel & Gow.
Inside Carlos Mota’s Vibrant Makeover of a Modernist Manse in Peru
Working with the AD100 talent, homeowner Bettina Iolas decided to leave safe decorating behind with the overhaul of her Lima pad
Join us in Paris for a behind the scenes visit with collector and shop owner Jamie Creel and partner, designer Marco Scarani at their sumptuous Left Bank apartment.
This holiday season, our editor-in-chief Nina Garcia has her sights set on the beach. As it starts to reach sub-zero temps up north, Palm Beach offers a low-key respite from the frosty city. What better to inspire a mid-winter escape than a verdant Aquazzura homeware collection that recalls long days by the water? There’s something here for every warm-weather lover in your life, from precious brooches to escapist resortwear. Happy shopping.
Established by avid collectors Jamie Creel and Marco Scarani, the Upper East Side cabinet of curiosities has everything from rare minerals and fossils to African art to spectacular tabletop finds. Creel and Gow also have a location in Millbrook, New York.
For East Coast collectors, finding a hidden gem amongst the bric-a-brac at Brimfield counts as competitive sport. Collectors Jamie Creel and Marco Scarani scurried quickly through the deal-hungry mob at the gates to scout one-of-a-kind pieces for their boutique Creel and Gow.
“People aren’t living in white boxes anymore, which makes fairs like Brimfield so great,” Creel observed. “It’s more about people collecting things and having interesting furniture and mixing antiques with modern pieces.”
Step Inside This Beachy Bahamas Abode by AD100 Designer David Netto
Working with architect Kiko Sanchez, Netto crafts a marvel of relaxed tropical chic for a young family
The vivid forest imagery of Northern European tapestries makes its way into the daily fold as linen adaptations, proving more versatile than its heavyweight predecessors. Take Cowtan & Tout's generously scaled panorama inspired by an 18th-century tapestry: The bold sapphire and moss imagery stretches the width of the fabric, making it ideal as an opulent throw or for dressing the table.
FROM LEFT: Richmond fabric, Cowtan & Tout. • Humbug Ticking Stripe fabric (as tapestry border), 36 Bourne Street. * Hand-carved mushrooms, Creel and Gow. • Cas en Bois box, Dennis & Leen. • Antique furniture pieces throughout, AJF Design.
STORY PHOTOGRAPHED AT JARDIN DE BUIS, AN 18TH-CENTURY DAIRY FARM IN POTTERSVILLE, NEW JERSEY
Moroccan wicker furnishings, Chinese opera headdresses, Loulou de la Falaise baubles, and silver-plated seashells made by the people who repair the Vatican’s silver. These are among the rare whatzits at the new Creel and Gow in Millbrook, New York. Jamie Creel, the co-proprietor, opened his first emporium, on East 70th in Manhattan, almost a decade ago, and it has become a destination for antiquarians around the world. In July he and partner Marco Scarani opened an outpost in the Hudson Valley to service the recent influx of full-time residents, alongside such fixtures as Martha Stewart, Bunny Williams, and Glenn Close.
Until they visited Tangier for the first time in 2004, Jamie Creel and Marco Scarani, the co-owners of Creel and Gow, a cabinet de curiosités-like shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with an outpost upstate in Millbrook, N.Y., had no intention of buying a vacation house in Morocco, much less one of the most storied residences in town. Ever since 1997, when they met the legendary interior designer Charles Sevigny in Paris, then in his late 70s and best known for his midcentury work with Knoll, they had been putting off a visit to the northern Moroccan city where Sevigny spent much of his time. The duo, now 55 and 49, respectively, always thought they were too young to enjoy Tangier’s expat enclave of eccentric aesthetes. “It was the last place we imagined ourselves,” says Scarani.
Digging through the market’s myriad options for that perfect something—be it a big-ticket item or a small (but statement-making) detail—can be more than a bit overwhelming. That’s why done the hard work for you, scouring the globe for the best of the best: our Frederic Finds!
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It’s that time of year when all things glitz and glam are basically a requirement. From copper gardening tools for your favorite green thumb to rose-gold earbuds and glittery sidewalk chalk that’s out of this world, these sparkling gift options are beyond chic…so go ahead, take a peek!
Established by avid collectors Jamie Creel and Christopher Gow, the Upper East Side cabinet of curiosities has everything from rare minerals and fossils to African art to spectacular tabletop finds. Creel and Gow also have a location in Millbrook, New York. —Sarah DiMarco
Stylish Manhattan boutique Creel and Gow opened its second home in Millbrook in late May. Founder Jamie Creel affectionately chose the new location, a building situated in the Hudson Valley, in the place Creel’s family spent weekends during his childhood. Founded in 2012, the shop’s original UES boutique showcases rare home and outdoor furnishings, and the new location is no different. Creel and Gow goes beyond just decorative objects and celebrates rare accessories with an emphasis on global artisans. Expect to find antiques and contemporary artisanal pieces from around the world, including exclusive Moroccan furniture and original Mauritian rugs. Rarity is cherished at Creel and Gow, which carries uncommon pieces with common design themes such as mineral, oceanic and natural. 3424 Franklin Ave., Millbrook –QW
Creel & Gow is relatively new to the area as well. At the very end of Franklin Street. If you don’t know their store on 70th Street in New York, go take a look. The new store is so much larger and airier, and offers a wider range of pieces. Everything has the Jamie Creel touch, but countrified, with light colors and larger pieces. Animals still abound as does good taste.
Crystals, minerals, and other offspring of the earth have outgrown their crunchy roots and are now used to craft everything from furniture to sinks, as well as a huge range of decorative accessories.
Shop-owner Jamie Creel, who finds himself drawn to early mushroom objets from the 19th and early 20th centuries, agrees: “There’s something sort of magical about a mushroom.”
“Every time I go to auction in Paris to bid on them, they go crazy,” he says.
Creel’s upstate–New York store, Creel & Gow, has a variety of ’shrooms available. Artisan-made, wooden mushrooms that range from small tabletop items to 20-inch creations can fetch up to $850 a piece. Three of them were purchased in the first weekend he transplanted them to his Manhattan flagship, Creel says.
For some, the connection to mushrooms is personal.
And for that special someone who’s impossible to shop for because they “have everything,” Creel and Gow, the wondrous purveyors of the Upper East Side bazaar, just opened a second location on Millbrook’s outskirts. Imagine the look on their face when you present them with a taxidermied turkey talon that’s flipping them the bird, so to speak. They will not, I guarantee you, “already have one.”
Opening in mid-May, Creel and Gow’s 5,000-square-foot Millbrook space is filled with the traditional Tangier-made rattan settees, chairs, consoles and tables that Jamie Creel has long loved and wished he had room to sell. Also from Tangier are newly woven one-of-a-kind wool rugs, and a line of hand-loomed linen napkins, place mats and tablecloths designed by Creel’s partner, Marco Scarani, and produced in the Fondouk Chejra, near the medina. Scarani has also commissioned intricately embroidered table linens from a women’s cooperative in Cairo to celebrate the new location.
World travelers, collectors and sophisticated shopkeepers, Jamie Creel and Marco Scarani, the duo behind the chic NYC design destination Creel and Gow, were instantly smitten by Tangier, the magical North African port city that has seduced generations of writers, artists and designers. After years of visiting friend and world renowned interior designer Charles Sevigny at his historic Moroccan home, Dar Zero, they purchased the house with the unique arrangement that Charles stay on for his lifetime – he passed away last year at 101. Please join me and Susanna for a special visit with Jamie and Marco in their stylish Tangerine home.
Fashionable preludes to the modern museum, cabinets of curiosity were diaries of record for well traveled collectors and fascinating glimpses of worlds unknown.
When it comes to eccentricity, there are few Manhattan stores to compare with Creel and Gow. The brainchild of avid collector and world traveller Jamie Creel, the eclectic décor shop sells a mind-boggling assortment of responsibly sourced curios, natural specimens, handicrafts and antiques, all personally unearthed by Mr Creel and his team. The setting is no less impressive, located within the former stables of a historic townhouse. But it’s the trinkets to be found inside that are the real draw, with highlights including vintage narwhal tusks, stuffed birds, ostrich eggs, rare minerals, and even deconstructed lobsters under bell jars.
In a Manhattan home designed by French designer Jean-Louis Deniot, vintage objects and contemporary art take shape against the deep blue sky of an endless city.
I collect brass objects, and these playful candleholders’ height and linear lines are the ideal playful addition to my tablescape. In my opinion, a little quirk never hurt anybody.
Based on the Upper East Side in New York City, Creel and Gow offer the finest in natural and handmade home decor objects and fashions. Placed on a coffee table, this silvered open clamshell or Tridacna would be the perfect styling accessory.
In France, if you want a beautiful apartment with a garden in the best neighborhood, you need to be patient,” says Burch’s friend Marco Scarani, who, with his partner, Jamie Creel—purveyor behind the beloved Manhattan curiosity shop Creel and Gow—possesses such a unicorn dwelling.
Passionate, life-long collectors and dealers, Creel and Gow have put together a breathtaking range of items in this almost magical, otherworldly boutique of rare finds and unique pieces in all categories. Stepping into the Creel and Gow boutique is an exercise in amazement as customers marvel at each and every item on display, eager to learn more about the history behind each piece and finding the perfect addition to their own personal collections.
Creel and Gow is one of NYC’s leading exotic, abstract, and unique boutiques. The boutique is located in a beautiful old building which was once home to famed architect Grosvenor Atterbury.
Jamie Creel and Marco Scarani travel the world to find the treasures that populate Creel and Gow. As Scarani explained to me, everything in the store is connected to nature; taxidermy animals, minerals, shells and art depicting nature. There are antiques and unusual crafts particular to some far off corner of the globe. What connects it all is the discerning eye of Creel and Scarani, their curiosity and wanderlust embodied in the store. The most celebrated interior designers regularly shop there to find the finishing touches that give personality, soul and a sense of history to their projects.
In The Raw
Natural elements and specimens add texture, warmth, and an organic quality to any room. For those who stray away from anything too bohemian, rock crystals and selenite object feel rich and sleek while offering up a down-to-earth feel.
Located in the former stables of an Upper East Side townhouse, this ivy covered façade is a delicious entry into a one-of-a-kind home decor boutique. Each inspiring corner of Creel and Gow reflects a unique design aesthetic filled with rare pieces.
“While my apartment in New York is filled with family memorabilia, portraits, paintings, silver, furniture and books passed down from generation to generation,” says Creel, “my Paris apartment has pretty much only things that I have picked since I first arrived here.”
Jamie Creel is the owner and curator of the Upper East Side boutique Creel and Gow, which overflows with exquisite objects, from deconstructed lobsters, taxidericy birds and prehistoric fossils to mounted crystals, silver-coated shells and exotic textiles. Not unlike his New York shop, Creel’s Paris apartment is a veritable treasure trove — a modern-day cabinet of curiosities. That said, the eclectic apartment has a distinctly French feel; it juxtaposes antique and modern French with contemporary art objects and furniture that often have personal significance, many by artists in his close circle of friends in Paris.
Starting with their Persimmon-coloured paper bags, Creel and Gow is a visual feast. The Manhattan boutique, which sells decorative accessories and gifts based on Mother Nature and has made a snug nest in the heart of the Upper East side, reminds me of an Edith Wharton novel.
November 19, 2012
"even before you enter you seem to think that you are not in New York City but possibly in Paris or London which, of course, even further enhances your experience once inside."
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