CDV three-quarter seated portrait of English author Charles Dickens by Gurney & Son, Fifth Avenue, New York, presents the author posed at a writing desk with pen in hand and books stacked beside him, in a companion image to the standing Gurney portrait made during the same 1867–68 American tour session. Dickens sits in a carved wooden armchair, leaning slightly forward over the desk, his elbow resting on the surface and his chin near his raised hand in a thoughtful attitude. He wears the same dark frock coat with notched lapel trim visible in the companion card.

Books are stacked on the lower shelf of the writing table, and the composition conveys a deliberate association of the subject with literary labor. The reverse matches the standing portrait exactly, with the Gurney imprint and identical dealer notations reading "LOGHCX 2/14/05 Eb," confirming both cards were acquired together.

Jeremiah Gurney & Son operated one of the most prominent portrait studios in New York during the 1860s, patronized by leading public figures of the era. The Dickens sittings produced at Gurney during the 1867–68 tour became among the most widely reproduced photographic likenesses of the novelist made in America.