All the Best Rubbish : The Classic Ode to Collecting

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.

Ivor Nol Hume is the former chief archaeologist of Colonial Williamsburg and director of the Williamsburg Department of Archaeology. He led the team that discovered the first traces of England's failed Roanoke Island colony, and his book A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America is the definitive source on the subject. In 1992 Hume was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his services to British cultural interests in Virginia. He lives in Williamsburg, Virginia.