Nice to see so much interest in the playing card prints!
To answer a couple of the questions:
- Each print is 29cm x 39cm
- Each print is single-sided (reverse is blank)
- Printed in Mexico City by "Carral y Carral" (Presumably 1945 or 46?)
I am not sure if decks of actual playing cards were produced with this artwork, or if it was solely sold as an album of prints. I haven't ever seen any real playing cards.
I have uploaded images of the full album to photobucket. Enjoy!
http://s779.photobucket.com/user/DekeThornton/slideshow/Bernal%20WWII%20Playing%20CardsMost of the historical figures are probably pretty recognizable. Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Hirohito, Montgomery, Himmler, Goering, etc. But the inside cover also has a handy legend with descriptions for all of the cards. I am not sure the text is quite legible in the photos though. I blame the photobucket compression :/
Somewhat interestingly, the cover of the album is in Spanish but the descriptive text on the inside cover is in English. I wonder if perhaps separate versions of the inside cover were printed for Spanish & English-speaking markets.
One more interesting point is that my particular copy has a gift inscription in pen on the inside cover: "To Wayne and Bill. A folio of historic fun. For your game room -- in Texas. From Francis and Red 6-14-1947"
Anyway, on to the good stuff. Here are a few more photos of my favorites.
Petain and the capitulation of France; Roosevelt ("America, Fuck Yeah" from Team America: World Police starts playing in my head involuntarily when I look at this print):
Death of Hindenburg; Hitler and Himmler begin book burning and executions:
Casablanca Conference; Hitler is thwarted by the Russian bear:
