Grand Duchess's Finger Nails & the Finger Found at Four Brother's Mine

"Nail varnish" was considered "fast" in the twenties and thirties.  Earlier nail color was supplied with the previously mentioned nail rouge and a suede buffer. I still have a suede nail buffer that was my greataunt's and it dates from WWI.

Guess Nicholas disliked the concept of nail color as much as his cousin George the Fifth in England did.

There is a famous story of when Queen Mary told Marina, after Marina was engaged to the Duke of Kent, that upon seeing Marina's darkly polished nails Queen Mary told Marina "My George does not like varnished nails." To which Marina replied "My George does."

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There is a famous story of when Queen Mary told Marina, after Marina was engaged to the Duke of Kent, that upon seeing Marina's darkly polished nails Queen Mary told Marina "My George does not like varnished nails." ....

Did her George like anything apart from ships & shooting??  

Did her George like anything apart from ships & shooting??  

... I guess his collection of stamps

George liked his wife more than anything.  

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

i think that they had nail files. or I'm sure like clippers. i just broke my nail to day on speaking of nails LOL. why wouldn't they have filers.

Maybe they chewed their nails........ disgusting, but oh so gratifying

I don't think we should be so harsh on people's spellings - English can be notoriously tricky and not everyone's forte is spelling. What is far more difficult (and annoying) is using texting abbreviations, which can be very difficult for people to work out the meaning of unless they are in the know. but that practice seems to have stopped anyway.

Back to fingers - no one has ever really been able to examine the finger that was found. Some one (I think Sokolov) said it was Alexandra's because it was well manicured, but that of course doesn't mean anything. Without seeing a body we can not say to whom it belonged. Who knows, it might have been Anastasia's, or Olga's, or maybe good old Dr Botkin liked to keep his fingers in a nice condition, and it was really one of his!

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

thank you Georgiy. i didn't know guys back then kept their fingernails nice? none of the guys i know do.

Who knows whether Dr Botkin would have kept his fingers well manicured - I suggested it more as a joke! Still being a doctor he would have looked after his hands. The finger itself doesn't look very feminine to me, but who knows how much time had elpsed between its severing and its being photographed.

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

Who knows whether Dr Botkin would have kept his fingers well manicured - I suggested it more as a joke! Still being a doctor he would have looked after his hands. The finger itself doesn't look very feminine to me, but who knows how much time had elpsed between its severing and its being photographed.

yes i agree. the nuckle looks way to manly than womenly. do doctors keep their finger nails nice and clean?

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ture but we can try. can't the people who found the finger like do DNA test on it to find who it belonged too?

Well, the finger was found during the (Russian) civil war and was put in a box along with other relics, and is now (I think) either enclosed in the altar, or in the wall of a Church in Belgium, so it would be hard to do a DNA test on it, though intriguing if they could. And yes, Grandduchess_42, doctors need to keep their hands immaculate - they are poking and prodding around inside people sometimes, and some of them do delicate surgery.

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

i ownder if it would fall apart if any one touched it. i mean its over a century old! of course i never thought of poking in side of people.

An ivory and silver manicure set was among the items found in the Ipatiev House after the execution.  (Source-Penny Wilson's and Greg King's The Fate of the Romanovs)

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

Were long nails ever fashionable for women then like nowdays?

i have no idea. i'm sure that they were shaped nicly and polished.