The eighteenth century fashion for collecting antiques reached such proportions that it engendered its own industry of dealers, agents, restorers and forgers in Rome. Foremost among these was Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716?-1799), a talented sculptor from a humble Roman family who gained the patronage of the influential Cardinal Albani, and who eventually maintained a vast workshop of his own. Although Cavaceppi always insisted that he merely restored damaged antiques in order to make them aesthetically pleasing to their owners, it is now known that he did create 'Antique' works in their entirety. This manufacture was normally disguised by smashing and 'restoring' the pieces, or by using different marbles for noses, ears and chins in order to 'complete' them. Seymour Howard, who wrote a doctoral thesis on Cavaceppi, notes that the artist's work often displays joins "...with cleanly dressed, slowly curving edges that are meant to look like accidental breaks..." (Clarendon, op.cit., p. 17). Regardless of the ethical rectitude of the artist, the present bust, with its extensively drilled vine, and delicate facial features, is a fine example of eighteenth century neo-classicism.