Queen Victoria is depicted in a full-length seated profile view in this albumen carte-de-visite, produced by W. & D. Downey of 9 Eldon Square, Newcastle on Tyne, with an additional London studio address noted at 61 Ebury Street, Eaton Square. Queen Victoria was first photographed "by a very good photographer Downey, from Newcastle" on 22 September 1866, and the Newcastle address on this mount, predating the firm's full London transition, places this example among the earlier Downey royal portraits. Queen Victoria wore mourning from the death of her husband, Prince Albert, in 1861, until her own death, establishing the black ensemble visible here as her consistent public dress throughout the period.

The Queen is shown in a voluminous black silk gown trimmed at the mantle edge and hem with a bold Greek key border in white, seated in three-quarter profile in an ornate carved chair. She wears a white widow's cap with a long white veil falling over her shoulders, a pearl necklace at her throat, and lace cuffs at her wrists. She holds what appears to be a folded document or pamphlet in her gloved hands, and to her right stands an ornamental side table bearing a small arrangement of flora or decorative objects.

William Downey originally set up the company with his brother Daniel, opening their first portrait studio in South Shields in 1856 and later operating from Eldon Square, Newcastle, and the firm became one of Queen Victoria's favourite photographers, photographing at Balmoral and Frogmore throughout the late 1860s. The firm continued to operate after the death of Daniel Downey in July 1881, and in 1896 Queen Victoria and her family were filmed by Downey using the new cinematograph process.

The reverse bears the printed imprint "W. & D. Downey, Photographers to Her Majesty, 9 Eldon Square, Newcastle on Tyne / London Studio, 61 Ebury St., Eaton Square / Portraits taken by appointment," accompanied by multiple royal coat-of-arms vignettes. Inscribed in pencil in the upper left corner of the reverse: "Queen Victoria."