Aleksei's Formal pictures

[LauraO]

yes, i've never seen the spelling used by any of the IF before. it would be interesting to find out who it was, but if it was an outsider then its unlikely that you could pin point who wrote it.

[Dust_of_History]

"Alexej" is the correct spelling in German, so it is not entirely impossible that one of the IF wrote it. But I also think that this is very unlikely. Maybe the photo once belonged to one of Alexandra's relatives in Hesse.

[matushka]

It can be anyone's handwriting: it is one of those postcard which everyone could buy in Imperial Russia. And the expression "our heir", in my opinion, indicate that an ordinary citizen is writing to a stranger, nothing more.

[LauraO]

i'd agree with this, actually i was thinking about it earlier, about the fact that "our heir" would indicate it wasn't a relative is hesse.

[Dust_of_History]

You could be right but I still think it is possible that it was a relative in Hesse. The fact that it was written in German indicates that it was not a Russian. But the word "our" indicates for me that the writer must have been somehow associated with the IF. But that's anyone's guess of course. 

[Natasha]

a quick question/observation on the number of formal portraits. because he was the heir, are there considerably more formal portraits of alexei than any of his sisters?

[nena]

It is hard to tell, since OTMA were born earlier, correct, so they must have taken more photos. But ehh, really? It is hard question, and even there is harder answer. Well, if we count photos of each of the Grand Duchess, it 'could be possible'  that they have more photos than their brother alltogether. We would know, if we counted all the photos, and then compare the results. Unfortunately, the real number of their formal photos is unknown.

[larri*]

This was new for me. Alexei in 1913: