Deborah Lee

Deborah Lee joined the Wallace Collection in 1999 following completion of a degree in conservation.  She worked principally on items in the European Armoury towards their eventual catalogue photography, followed by further work on the (then) Oriental Armoury, now known as the Ottoman, Middle-Eastern and Asian Armoury.  She left her permanent post in 2008 to become a self-employed freelance metals and arms/armour conservator based in Kent, but has returned to the Collection on short-term contracts occasionally thereafter to assist with specific Armoury-related projects. 

Besides a wide range of collectors, dealers and auction houses, her clients have included Firle House, Belmont House, Canterbury Museum, the Royal Lancers Museum (all 3 sites including stores), the National Army Museum, the Metropolitan Museum in New York USA, the Maharaja of Jodhpur (at Mehrangar Fort, Rajastan, India), and work in the Punjab for a number of Sikh temples including the Golden Temple.  Whilst working in Jodhpur she was responsible for training recent Indian conservation graduates in the conservation and care of the Fort’s vast arms and armour collections, and has since expanded her teaching role at West Dean, where she taught both graduate and MA students last year and is currently a Visiting Lecturer.