[Mccoypottery-talk] Lead?

[JHS]

Most pottery company's use(d) glazes that were lead free on all their pieces
that were to be used for food from around 1950 on.  So if it was originally
meant for food, you can bet McCoy was probably very careful about which
glazes they used after the 1950's or so when it became known that lead could
leach from the glaze into the food. The early stuff like the stoneware
pieces probably had/have a high lead content because they didn't realize
that the glaze's lead or other impurities could actually leach into the
food.
As a history lesson, when they analyze hair from people who have been dead
50 years or more, they usually find a high lead content because the
knowledge wasn't there back then.  Bach and even Picasso were thought to
have had their afflictions because of lead poisoning from Pewter and
crockery.
If you are wanting to use a planter, for instance, to hold food, I'd say
don't do it since it wasn't manufactured for food.  Same as the art pottery
from Roseville, etc.  Although it was made into pitcher molds, etc., it
wasn't manufactured for holding food so anything could have been put into
the glazes.
(From my pottery classes in college<G>)

Jennifer Smith
Capriherb Farm
Baltimore, Ohio