December 10-13, 2024 Firearms & Militaria
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/13/2024
Framed caricatures World War II figures and events in the form of a full deck of 52 cards. Funded by the US Government and produced for the American market, this portfolio was created by famed Mexican illustrator and commercial illustrator Antonio Arias Bernal (1913-1960), one of Mexico's most important political cartoonists of the mid-20th century, his influences being traced to directly to Walt Disney and Mexican caricaturist Ernesto García Cabral. Bernal's anti-Axis illustrations graced the covers the Mexican publications Manana and Hoy during World War II, along with appearing in American magazines Look and Collier's. The illustration topics cover the breadth of World War II, ranging from Hitler's Munich beer hall putsch to the atomic bomb. These rare sets were made specifically for the US. Personalities depicted include: Franklin D. Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Joseph Stalin, Chiang Kai-shek, Haile Selassie, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Bernard Montgomery, Adolph Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Emperor Hirohito, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, Erwin Rommel, Hideki Tojo as well as American soldiers, Rosie the Riveter building tanks and Uncle Sam. Some events depicted or referenced include: signing of the Munich Agreement, Nazi invasion of Poland, Pearl Harbor, the liberation of France, the bombing of Hiroshima, and a scene showing Hitler being roasted by the Statue of Liberty's torch. Stereotypical anti-Axis Japanese caricatures throughout. Project was created in 1945 at the behest of the office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA), an American propaganda agency based in Washington, D.C. The goal of the deck of cards was to help persuade then neutral South American countries to declare their support for the Allied cause. By the time the CIAA was being shut down with the end of the war in sight, the project was largely finished. Bernal was then granted permission to complete the set using the leftover funds from his commission to print an undetermined number of the complete portfolios. These sets were then distributed to selected libraries and colleges across the US. Prints have varying degrees of aging, wear, corner tip chips, and scattered staining. CONDITION: good.