An unidentified ventriloquist stands beside his dummy in a full-length studio portrait produced by Ramsden, 63 Granby Street, Leicester, the studio name printed in gold script along the lower black mount border. The dummy is positioned on a bentwood stool to bring it level with the ventriloquist's chest, and both figures face each other in a conversational pose. No subject identification appears on the visible mount and no reverse image was provided.

The ventriloquist wears a black tailcoat with white waistcoat and pleated shirtfront, a bow tie, and stands with his right hand in his trouser pocket and left arm relaxed at his side. The dummy is dressed in a matching tailcoat, white waistcoat, and bow tie, its exaggerated carved face with wide open mouth turned up toward the ventriloquist, one articulated hand raised holding what appears to be a lit cigarette, with a faint wisp of smoke visible between the two figures. The dummy's head is covered with curly light-colored hair, and its feet rest on the stool seat.

The detail of a dummy apparently smoking a cigarette while held by a ventriloquist was a well-documented stage trick of the late Victorian period, achieved through concealed mechanisms, and was specifically noted as a feature of performers including Prince Bendon of Glasgow during the same era.A rubber stamp on both the front lower border and the reverse reads "J.H. Master, Mimic and Ventriloquist, Manchester, N.H." The reverse also carries the catalog notation "L0HGF2 / 88."