A horizontal-format lithographic trade card advertising Mark Twain Cigars, printed by Heppenheimer & Maurer, 22 & 24 N. William Street, New York, presents a halftone portrait of Mark Twain in a central oval medallion flanked by bold geometric border elements in black and tan, with the advertising text Don't Fail and To Smoke in banner panels at the upper left and right, and Mark Twain and Cigars in larger block lettering at the lower corners. Twain appears in the oval in a left-facing three-quarter bust, his dark curly hair prominent, a full mustache defining his upper lip, wearing a dark coat and striped tie with a white shirt, his expression serious and direct in the halftone reproduction. The printer's credit Heppenheimer & Maurer / 22 & 24 N. William St. N.Y. appears in small type at the lower center edge.

Heppenheimer & Maurer was one of the leading commercial lithography firms in New York during the 1870s and 1880s, producing trade cards, cigar labels, and advertising ephemera for a wide range of clients. The reverse bears a rubber stamp impression reading Rudolf Seifert, Clark Street, Chicago, dated Jul 23 1883, indicating the card entered a Chicago stationer or tobacconist's inventory in the summer of 1883.

Mark Twain Cigars were produced without Twain's authorization, and Twain was famously protective of the commercial use of his name and likeness. The use of his portrait on cigar advertising in 1883 reflected his enormous celebrity following the success of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and his popularity as a lecturer, arriving just one year before the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Twain's well-known personal fondness for cigars made him an irresistible, if unauthorized, celebrity choice for tobacco advertisers of the era.

The reverse bears a Rudolf Seifert, Clark Street, Chicago rubber stamp dated Jul 23 1883 and dealer code 5/19/13 / COLAXZ.