Safety issue with vintage dishes?

[MidnightCommando]

DD's 4th birthday is coming up and I know she would love a tea set of her own. I have been drooling over various vintage tea sets on Etsy and wondered if there are any potential issues I should be concerned about, i.e lead, etc.

The ones I am looking at are mostly porcelain and made in Japan in the 50s/60s. There are also a few plastic and some painted metal from various decades.

Thanks

p.s why didn't anyone tell me how addicting Etsy is? I know where all my gift shopping will now be done.

[swd12422]

No help with the safety issue, but if you decide to go with plastic, here's another option:
http://www.greentoys.com/tea.html

Made from recycled milk cartons, and recyclable also. The dishes are dishwasher safe, so she can use them for a "real" tea party, assuming she's not using boiling hot tea....

We have a few toys from this company, and they look like new after years of being beaten up, thrown around, and left outside.

[SleeplessMommy]

this color glaze is almost certain to have lead:
http://www.zkgood.com/wp-content/upl...ottery-sds.jpg

and i would not eat off of any vintage metal painted plates..... risky!

if you don't eat off them, the risk is low.

[allnaturalmom]

I would not eat off of them. You could always test them yourself after you receive them, but at that point it's probably too late. I don't remember exactly, but I believe the lowered lead laws went into effect here somewhere around the mid-80s - don't quote me,

Maybe you could consider a glass teacup set. They would be much safer as far as lead is concerned. Maybe something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Northwest-Glas...ref=pd_sim_k_3

gl
hth

[MidnightCommando]

I guess there is no good way to tell so I think I'll err on the safe side. Too bad since some of these sets were beyond cute.

Thanks for the link to the green/recycled set. I think that will be the one!

Thanks