All the best rubbish : the classic ode to collecting / Ivor Noël Hume.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Noël Hume, Ivor.

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Antiques.

Collectibles.

Collectors and collecting.

Physical Description:

xxv, 323 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

[Revised edition].

Place of Publication:

New York : Harper, 2009.

Summary:

In his newly revised classic, All the Best Rubbish, Ivor Nol͡ 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."

Nol͡ 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.

Contents:

1 "What's Past Is Prologue..." 1

2 To Have and to Hold 16

3 Cabinets, Closets, and Dubitable Curiosities 35

4 In Search of Bald Sextons 54

5 Something for Nothing 71

6 Billie and Charlie and Margaret North 97

7 Of Mud, and Pots, and Puppy Dogs, and Mistake that Come Back in the Night 125

8 Adam and Eve to Caroline, with Intermediate Stops 143

9 History in a Green Bottle 173

10 "All the Best Rubbish Is Gone" 204

11 A Word in Your Eye 226

12 Of Mermaids, Fakes, and Other Grave Matters 261

13 And Then What? 290.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9780061809897

0061809896

OCLC:

310398943