A real photo postcard presents an extreme close-up view of a bound human foot, held from behind by a second pair of hands visible at the right edge of the frame. The image is rendered in silver gelatin on postcard stock, with no photographer's imprint visible. The postcard format and photographic printing style are consistent with early twentieth-century production.

The bound foot is shown from the plantar side, with all five toes compressed and folded sharply downward toward the sole. The skin across the dorsum is tightly stretched and deeply creased, and the ball of the foot is enlarged and rounded from years of binding pressure. A second pair of hands with visible nails steadies the foot at the right, providing scale.

Foot binding was practiced in China for roughly one thousand years before an organized abolition movement gained momentum in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Images documenting bound feet were produced during this period as both medical and ethnographic records, and as popular curio photographs distributed internationally. This example belongs to that tradition.

The image face bears the handwritten caption "The small foot" and the catalog number 120. The reverse is penciled with the notation "3/29/15" and "DOLAXZ."