Pantaloon, a rich Venetian merchant, is the tight-fisted father of Isabella, one of the main romantic heroines of the Italian comic theatre or 'Commedia dell'Arte'. The Nymphenburg factory's most famous modeller, Bustelli, has portrayed him in the traditional manner as a thin, shifty and mean-looking old man, his hands holding firmly on to his moneybags hidden under his cloak. His strange clothes would have been considered ridiculously old-fashioned, even then, but they also tell us about his status, red being the most expensive dye at the time and the preserve of only the richest in society.

This figure is a very fine example of its kind. In addition to usual mark of the Nymphenburg factory, the Bavarian shield prominently edged with gilding on the scroll base, it bears the impressed mark of Bustelli himself on the underside. This rare mark tells us that this particular model was finished by the great man himself and approved by him as the version for other mould finishers (or 'repairers' as they are known) to follow.