CAST BY J.J.DUCEL, CIRCA 1880

The Faun with Pipes was certainly recorded in the Villa Borghese, Rome, by 1638. It remained there until 1807 when it was purchased, along with much of the Borghese collection, by Napoleon Bonaparte - brother-in-law to Prince Camillo Borghese. In 1815 it was installed in the Louvre, where it now resides.

Its popularity was evidently significant since it featured in Francois Perrier's 1638 anthology of the most admired statues in Rome. It was copied extensively in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries being reproduced in engravings, plaster casts, Wedgwood, bronzes and cast-iron such as the present lot.