Main description:

One person's trash is another's treasure!

In his newly revised classic, All the Best Rubbish, Ivor Noël Hume traces the fascinating history of collecting from its recorded beginnings and describes the remarkable detective work that goes into establishing the probable facts about uncovered and often underappreciated treasures. Now expanded with hints, tips, and helpful information about antique-hunting online, All the Best Rubbish is the ideal book for the antiquarian or amateur, the historian or professional collector—for anyone who knows that there's no such thing as "just junk."

Noël Hume, former head of the Department of Archaeology for Colonial Williamsburg, has pursued bottles, pottery, clocks, and coins through junk shops, street markets, attics, and cellars on two continents. He's unearthed the most fascinating—and valuable—rubbish from the most unlikely places: the shores of the Thames in London; the lagoons of the Caribbean; the bottom of Martha Washington's well. Hume knows everything that's worth knowing about collecting—why we do it, what we can find, where we can find it, and what we can learn from it.

Short description/annotation:

Ivor Noel Hume, the former chief archaeologist of Colonial Williamsburg, offers a delightful, anecdotal, and informative celebration of the joys of collecting. All the Best Rubbish is the enchanting and edifying product of Hume’s lifetime spent pursuing historical junk across the globe, a hunt that has led him to the most remarkable finds in the most unexpected places. A true treasure for antiquarians, historians, collectors, and fans of television’s Antique Roadshow, Hume’s All the Best Rubbish includes a new introduction by the author on collecting on the Internet in the Age of Ebay.