Selección Marín: The Rare Historical Dolls of Marín Chiclana
Marín Chiclana made a great many dolls. Flamenco dancers, regional costumes, Spanish beauties with fans — enough of them, in fact, to ensure that almost anyone who starts looking for vintage Marín will find one sooner or later.
And then there is Selección Marín.
Not another flamenco dress in a different colour. Not a generic lady in something vaguely resembling the 18th century. These dolls represent historical characters, dressed in the fashion of their time — and Marín took the historical part rather seriously.
Serious enough, in fact, to explain it.
Original labels preserved with some of these dolls contain information about the fashion of the period represented: the clothes, the silhouettes, the hairstyles and the details that made one century look quite unlike another.
This is an unusually ambitious idea for a decorative doll.
History, Right Down to the Petticoats
The most obvious attraction of Selección Marín is, of course, the costume.
And there is a lot of it.
Spanish sources describing collections of Marín historical dolls mention not only dresses and jewellery, but shoes, stockings and petticoats. Details that could quite easily have been ignored — because nobody was going to see them on a doll standing in a cabinet — were there anyway.
That tells us quite a lot about what Marín was trying to do.
The costume was not simply decoration added after the doll had been designed. It was part of the character. The hairstyle mattered. The jewellery mattered. The shape of the skirt mattered. Apparently, even the stockings mattered.
Which is precisely the sort of unnecessary attention to detail that makes collectors very happy.
The surviving characters show just how far Marín took the idea. There is Cayetana – Siglo XVIII, magnificent in black lace; Paloma – Siglo XIX, in an elaborate 19th-century gown; Odette, looking into a hand mirror as she adjusts her hair; and the extravagant fashions of 18th-century Versailles.
And these are only some of them.
Spanish exhibition records describe Marín historical dolls representing Henry VIII, the Duchess of Alba and Queen María Cristina.
So this was no tiny excursion into historical costume. Marín built a surprisingly broad gallery of characters and periods, with each doll given her own clothes, accessories, hairstyle and personality.
Discovering Selección Marín
I had been buying and selling Marín dolls for at least a year — probably closer to a year and a half — before I even knew that this historical series existed.
Then, quite by accident, I found a page created by a collector who had gathered photographs of many of these historical dolls in one place. That was the first time I saw them as a series rather than as individual Marín dolls.
And I remembered them.
There was something rather dangerous about seeing them all together. One beautiful historical character was interesting. A whole gallery of them — different faces, centuries, dresses, hairstyles and names — was quite another matter.
I started looking for them.
Nothing happened.
For quite some time, not a single one appeared. I continued buying and selling Marín dolls, but Selección Marín remained something I knew existed somewhere rather than something I could actually find.
Eventually, the first one came.
Today, there are twelve historical Selección Marín dolls in the Morante Boutique collection.
Why Selección Marín Matters to Collectors
For a dedicated Marín collector, the historical dolls of Selección Marín represent something close to the pinnacle of collecting. They belong to a very different world from the familiar flamenco and regional dolls produced by Marín in large numbers. Each is a carefully conceived historical character, brought to life through period costume, hairstyle, accessories and the smallest details of dress.
Finding these dolls today requires patience. Finding a particular character — especially with its original base, label, booklet or other documentation — is considerably more difficult.
Their importance, however, goes beyond rarity. Today, a major collection of Marín dolls is preserved in Chiclana de la Frontera, their place of origin, where the legacy of the celebrated Spanish manufacturer has become part of the town’s cultural heritage. For a private collector, owning a historical Selección Marín therefore offers something unusual: the pleasure of possessing an exceptional and beautiful doll while also preserving a surviving piece of Spanish cultural history.
A historical Selección Marín doll is not simply another addition to a collection. For a serious Marín collector, these rare historical dolls represent the pinnacle of collecting — exceptional pieces to seek out, preserve and be proud to own.
journalist, vintage & antique dealer, founder of Morante Boutique