aTHÉe

For you must understand, most of the stuff was tasteless and worthless, which was why it made Norton and me laugh to see a particularly ugly little table described as a « Coromandel Wood Tea Caddy, mounted with 10 plated medallions, » or Russell’s battered desk transformed into a « Walnut Kneehole Writing Table », or the stained rugs described as « Superior Turkey Carpets ». Indeed, of all Russell’s furniture, only one piece – a six-legged Chippendale sofa – was any good, and this, in the end, I bought myself.
...
And then there was the tea table for which he seemed to feel a disproportionate attachment. But the medal would go.
…
The first lot, the auctioneer said, was already sold. This consisted of the silver, the watch and chain, the medal, and that tea table to which Russell felt such an attachment, and had been paid for with the funds collected by Morrell and Norton through their subscription.

David Leavitt The Indian Clerk Bloomsbury 2007

Cette vente aux enchères eut lieu le 26 juillet 1916. Bertrand Russell émit l'argument d'une théière, indétectable, en orbite, en 1952. Ce qui me suffisait pour croire qu'il aimait le thé. Il l'a toutefois affirmé lui-même dans un article publié peu après son retour de Chine:

...some kind person, like a genie in "The ArabianNights'~ brings tea in little cups - not the gross liquid that we call tea, but an amber-colored nectar with an intoxicating fragrance, half aromatic, half like the meadows in June, combining the freshness of spring with the beauty of summer sunshine robbed of its dust and heat.
The Nation and the Athenaeum, 17Dec.1921

 http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1707&context=russelljournal