Captain Spiers sits for a multi-pose CDV proof sheet in 1864, the full uncut albumen print preserving all eight exposures as they came off the plate before the individual portraits were trimmed and mounted. Disdéri's four-lensed camera allowed up to eight negatives on a single plate, and his prints generally featured eight small rectangular images arranged in two rows of four, exactly as seen here. The sheet is mounted on a gray presentation board with an octagonal window cut to frame the image, and a handwritten label is affixed to the lower edge.

The sitter wears layered Eastern dress throughout all eight frames: a dark, floor-length robe beneath a richly patterned paisley mantle with decorative border trim, and a draped head cloth worn in the manner of a keffiyeh. His full, voluminous dark beard and direct, heavy-browed gaze are consistent across every frame. The upper row of four shows a seated three-quarter pose with one hand raised, while the lower row of four shows a standing pose with hands clasped at the waist, presenting subtly different angles and compositions.

The multi-lens camera system resulted in a single subject captured in several shots, or a variety of successive poses, and this sheet captures both approaches simultaneously, making it an unusually complete survival of the CDV production process. Proof sheets of this kind were rarely preserved intact, as the standard commercial workflow called for the images to be cut apart and mounted individually for sale.

The handwritten label at the lower edge of the mount reads: "47988. Capitaine Spiers. 1864." The number 47988 is also printed in ink across the center of the photograph sheet itself.