女王80大壽？您一定會說，英國女王伊麗莎白二世不是在4月21日剛剛過完生日嗎？原來，英國女王有兩個“生日”，4月份那個是她的80歲誕辰，而6月17日這個則是她的官方生日。為此，英國華夏文化協會為女王準備了一件特殊禮物——一個繪有女王肖像的中國鼻煙壺，由中國內畫大師張增樓花數月制作而成。

portrait of the queen on the front	three Chinese characters of "Kang Er Shou" on the back

請看《人民日報》相關報道：When the whole Britain is looking forward to the official celebration of the Queen's 80th birthday, a snuff bottle with the Queen's portrait painted on its inside by a Chinese artist was presented here on Wednesday as a special gift.

The bottle portrait was done by Zhang Zenglou, one of the most prominent artists specializing in snuff bottle painting, known as inside-painting.

報道中的snuff bottle就是聞名于世的工藝制品“鼻煙壺”。Snuff原指用力“吸氣”，可引申為“（吸）鼻煙”，如：My father used to take snuff.（我父親過去常吸鼻煙。）另外，若snuff和介詞out連用，常常用來指代“死去”、“扼殺”，例如：Greedy heirs waited for the old man to snuff out. （貪心的繼承人只待著老頭斷氣。）

Snuff bottle（鼻煙壺）是工藝制品中的一朵奇葩，它將玉石、水晶、瑪瑙、瓷等與繪畫和書法藝術結合，被雅士們視為珍貴文玩。據傳，鼻煙的原料是優質煙草，它最初被印第安人視為神圣的祭品。1492年，哥倫比亞發現新大陸后，煙草和鼻煙開始在世界各地傳播。鼻煙壺最早由意大利教士利瑪竇帶入中國，而中國自制鼻煙壺則始于清朝初年。

請看一個例句：Snuff bottle is a traditional Chinese folk craft，which first appeared in China in the mid17th century. What makes a snuff bottle special is not its practical use but that it is painted on the inside.（鼻煙壺是中國傳統民間工藝品，最早出現在17世紀中期。鼻煙壺的價值不在于其用途，而在于其內畫藝術。）


(英語點津陳蓓編輯）