Rag and bone man

Rag and bone man is a British phrase for a junk dealer. Historically the phrase referred to an individual who would travel the streets of a city with a horsedrawn cart, and would collect old rags (for converting into fabric and paper), bones (for making glue), scrap iron and other items, often trading them for other items of limited value. Once the world became more mechanized, they traded their horses for a lorry or pickup truck. Rag and bone men practiced an early form of recycling. The British sitcom Steptoe and Son was based on a pair of rag and bone men. The subsequent American sitcom, Sanford and Son was based on the same concept, though the phrase 'junk man' or 'junk dealer' was more typically used in the US.