Vintage Fenton White Milk Glass Hobnail Fan Vase: 136 ppm Lead (not particularly alarming for a vase).
XRF test results for the vase pictured here:
60-second reading
- Lead (Pb): 136 +/- 15 ppm
- Barium (Ba): 97 +/- 27 ppm
- Bromine (Br): 17 +/- 3 ppm
- Zinc (Zn): 33 +/- 15 ppm
As always, thank you for reading and for sharing my posts. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Tamara Rubin
#LeadSafeMama
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Hi, Tamera!
Thank you for all you do.
I have a small pitcher and juice glass set made by Fenton in this same hobnail milk glass. Another site says the lead in this glass is likely to be encapsulated and therefore not harmful.
Do you agree?
I’m hosting a family breakfast in a week, and we use this set as a traditional part of such get-togethers. This happens only once or twice a year, and the orange juice stays in contact with the glass for no more than an hour. How much lead can leach out of a freshly washed set in under an hour? Is it enough to be harmful?
Help! (And thanks again❣️)
Oh. Mmm. I just cannot recommend using something like this for food use purposes, especially with acidic juice. Ikea has some nice clear glass pitchers for about $5 – (Walmart and Target might too.) Here’s an affiliate link for the Lead-free pitcher I use with my family: https://amzn.to/3o9VQs6 [It’s 22.99 and fits nicely in the fridge because it is square!]
The problem with this vintage type glass in the form of a pitcher is that I have not tested enough examples from this brand to know if there is a range of Lead content or not. If it is exactly like this and exactly the same brand – there’s a chance that it would be fine to use for a beverage. I don’t know how many years they produced this type of glass however and manufacturers have been known to change formulations dramatically from year to year. So it’s possible that other examples might have 5,000 ppm Lead or even 100,000 ppm Lead – and I just don’t have enough information to consider this type of thing safe across the board for pieces that might be used for food use purposes. AND if it is significantly higher Lead (than the piece pictured) on hour is MORE THAN enough time for unsafe levels of Lead to leach into orange juice: https://tamararubin.com/topics/crystal/
You may also want to read this post for context: https://tamararubin.com/2019/12/this-crystal-juice-glass-was-likely-the-source-of-a-boys-mysterious-lead-poisoning-the-glass-is-351400-ppm-lead-90ppm-is-illegal-in-kids-items/
Tamara
I wonder about hobnail glasses and vintage hobnail meant for food/drinks, I have an opal hobnail wine glass and a blue glass that I use for a candle holder because i figured it might be unsafe due to age.
Are vintage milk glass decorative items ok for display purposes or does lead leech out into the air?
Unpainted / undecorated items like this should be fine for decor. There is no risk of leaching or creating Lead-contaminated dust with items like this.
T