December 26

Yesterday we went back 100 years, now we’re going forward again about 100 years. Today’s deck was published in France in 1949. It reads “Acanthe Paris” on the AH, but I’m still not sure if that is just the publisher or maybe the printer too. The deck was designed by Leonor Fini, born in Buenos Aires in 1908, raised in Trieste before she went to Paris to become a painter. She was influenced by the surrealist painters there, a.o. Salvador Dali, Paul Elouard and Max Ernst.
The deck is known here as the Surrealist deck, although that name doesn’t appear anywhere in the deck or box. Leonor’s signature is only found on the joker.
In 1992 the deck was re-published by the Galerie Dionne. Just like the original deck, that edition has gold edges too, but can be recognized by the different back design (with a cat or a face).