« Shell small, slender, elongato-conical; whorls about 10; ornamented by exceedingly fine spiral lines with a prominent, nearly central angulation; base of the shell concave, acutely angulate; mouth subquadrangular; outer lip thin. » – F. W. Harmer: “The Pliocene Mollusca of Great Britain” part III, Monograph of the Palaeontographical Society vol. 70, London 1918 (feb. 1916), p. 445.
 
A description of recent specimens was previously given in the Systematisches Conchylien-Cabinet Bd.1:Abt.27, Nürnberg 1897, by W. Kobelt p.66: « Testa elongato-conica, unicolor fusca, anfractibus numerosis plano-convexis, superis carinatis, spiraliter tenuiter striatis, obsolete carinata lira majore suprasuturali; anfractus ultimus ad peripheriam acute angulatus, infra carinam sulco majore, dein striatus basi excavatus. Apertura subquadrata; columella obliqua, labro tenui, extus angulato. » From which it emerges that the shell is carinate adapically, and finely striated later, with a single sharp keel in the middle of each adult whorl.