A French half plate daguerreotype of a family of five, the three children each holding up an ornately bound book for the camera, and one wearing an eye patch. Pictorial bindings like these were popular in France as children's gift and prize books, and the large plate records each cover in detail.

The mother, in a lace cap and broad lace collar, sits at left beside a seated boy who clasps his book to his chest. Behind them a youth in a straw hat with a dark band, a patch over one eye, raises a book whose cover shows a standing figure. A taller boy in a loosely knotted neckerchief holds a third with a ship under sail, his hand on his brother's shoulder. At right the heavily bearded father holds a cane and a cigar.

The plate is mounted in the French manner behind glass painted in a tortoiseshell pattern, with a shaped gilt line and gilt mat. The back is sealed with paper and fitted with a hanging ring.