A man is depicted in full face; he sets his back and both hands against a hand mill's long horizontal wooden handle. The man's head is shaved and twined around with a thin braid. He is dressed in a blue shirt and knee-length grey pants. The man is barefoot. The mill consists of a large round disk made of stone with grindstones attached to it horizontally. There is a round wooden box with a square hole under the disk. The etching comes from the album "Chinese Customs and National Costumes", which includes 60 images of Chinese people engaged in various activities. An explanation in German accompanies each image; some are written in French. In the eighteenth century, artists in Canton (Guangzhou) in southern China created such paintings for Europeans seeking to learn more about China and its people.