XRF Test results for the dish pictured here.
On a white section of the dish
- Chromium (Cr): 443 +/- 216 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 6,334 +/- 460 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 1,673 +/- 312 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 713,900 +/- 46,000 ppm
- Bismuth (Bi): 144 +/- 73 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 141,300 +/- 9,100 ppm
- Chlorine (Cl): 52,100 +/- 5,800 ppm
On a blue section of the dish
- Lead (Pb): 108 +/- 63 ppm
- Chromium (Cr): 402 +/- 224 ppm
- Tin (Sn): 7,246 +/- 444 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 1,629 +/- 262 ppm
- Iron (Fe): 725,600 +/- 40,000 ppm
- Bismuth (Bi): 216 +/- 75 ppm
- Titanium (Ti): 146,700 +/- 8,100 ppm
- Chlorine (Cl): 44,600 +/- 5,000 ppm
As always, thank you for reading and for sharing my posts. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
I have collected Blue Willow for 20+ years. I have recently found out that some may contain lead. Some pieces have no markings while others are from Japan, several different markings from England, and the USA. I would like to ensure that the pieces that are lead free are the ones we use for eating while those that are leaded are used only for display. Can you help?
Hi Becky. In general I would not use Blue Willow pieces for food use. The likelihood of them being very high in Lead is too great. That combined with their age and regular daily use make them a definite Lead-exposure risk in most cases (in the absence of doing your own leach testing on each different plate.)
Here’s a post about the overarching concern:
https://tamararubin.com/topics/does-vintage-and-new-functional-pottery-and-dishware-have-unsafe-levels-of-lead/
Here’s the Blue Willow category on the blog with several relevant examples:
https://tamararubin.com/category/blue-willow/
And the blue willow overview post on the blog:
https://tamararubin.com/2018/07/leaded-johnson-brothers-willow-plate-made-in-england/
Tamara
Becky here is how to send a dish in for testing if you are still interested (after reading those related links) https://tamararubin.com/2019/08/tamara-can-i-send-you-one-of-my-dishes-to-test-for-lead/
Tamara