CDV bust portrait of American author Mark Twain by Gurney & Son, Fifth Avenue, New York, presents a closely related but distinct sitting from the companion Gurney card, mounted on an unusual dark wood-grain printed cardstock that gives the piece a striking visual character. Twain appears in a dark coat with a large floppy bow tie, his hair fuller and slightly more disheveled than in the companion image, his mustache prominent and his expression direct and unguarded. The pose is slightly more frontal, the lighting rendering his features with strong contrast against the dark background.

The wood-grain mount is a distinctive decorative variant used by Gurney for certain portrait issues and is considerably less common than the standard plain card stock. The reverse carries a gold-printed Gurney ornamental imprint on the dark ground, consistent with the premium presentation of the mount.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) sat for Gurney & Son on multiple occasions, and the resulting portraits circulated widely as collectible CDVs during the height of the cartomania era. His Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) is widely regarded as one of the foundational works of American literature, and his satirical essays and travel writings earned him an international readership during his lifetime.