New Teapot - Safe to Brew Tea In?

[tourmaline]

Hi everyone,
I recently found a ceramic teapot that I adore at a thrift store for only a few dollars. The glaze is quite matte, the brownish yellow glaze is more matte than the light gray-blue areas, which are more shiny. It has a built-in strainer covering the inner opening to the spout, which makes me think it was intended for actual use and not merely as a decorative item. But I'm worried about lead leaching.

After buying the item, I used some alcohol on a cotton ball to remove the price (written with a Sharpie marker on the bottom of the teapot) and some of the brownish yellow color on the bottom came off on the cotton ball, along with the Sharpie ink.

I've included some pics of the teapot. Do you think it's safe to brew tea in? I made a pot of Gunpowder green tea in it on Saturday and it was wonderful - no weird flavors/odors. I did have some weird stomach cramps all day yesterday, but I doubt that was related to lead poisoning from the teapot that I drank over 24 hours earlier(?).

Thoughts? Thanks! Here are pics:

[Rx7_Fan]

Why don't you season the teapot before you use it? Even though this is ceramic and it wont make any difference in terms of taste because the pot is already glazed, seasoning the teapot with hot water for a long period of time will clean it and get rid of harmful substances. Just YouTube "Season a Yixing Teapot" for video instruction.

[pedant]

wash it out really well with soap and hot water.
after that, try rubbing it with alcohol like you did before and see if gunk is still coming off...

[tourmaline]

Thank you, RX7_fan, I will definitely look into teapot seasoning.

Pendant, it's only on the bottom external part of the teapot where I noticed color come off onto the cotton ball with alcohol on it. The inside of the teapot is speckled light gray-blue glaze and it's a different, more shiny glaze than the external brown glaze that rubbed off. I made some Bai Mu Dan white tea with it this afternoon, if I get more stomach cramps then I will start to suspect it's the glaze leaching from the new teapot.