Nephrite as a surface treatment. A lot of nephrite tools and amulets are known since the Early Neolithic (VII mill. BC) to the Late Chalcolithic (V mill. BC) on the Balkans (mainly Bulgaria; also in Greece, Serbia, Croatia) from two or more unknown sources - Balkan "nephrite culture". Such tools are found in the Later Neolithic of Poland (from the most probable local source Jordanów), Sardinia (Italy) (unknown source) and Switzerland (Kostov, 2005; 2013). Single or just a few finds of nephrite artifacts are reported also from some other European countries. During Neolithic times, the key known sources of nephrite jade
Empire Nephrite (Fabergé egg) Empire Nephrite (Fabergé egg) The Empire Nephrite (sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Alexander III Medallion) egg is a jewelled Easter egg, one of the Imperial Eggs made under the supervision of the Russian jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé in 1901–1902 for Nicholas II of Russia, who presented it to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, at Easter 1902. The name of the egg refers to the fact that it was made in the Empire Style, from nephrite. The original Fabergé invoice reads: "Egg, 'Empire', from nephrite, with gold, two diamonds and miniature". The egg reappeared in the mid-1990s and