My husband Donald Bailey, who has died aged 83, was an internationally respected scholar of classical archaeology, especially in the field of Roman ceramic studies. He combined meticulous curatorial work with research and publication of the highest quality, inspired by, but by no means confined to, the unrivalled collections of the British Museum, where he was a curator from 1955 until his retirement in 1996.
His work made accessible large and important areas of the collections and will have laid the foundation for research projects by archaeologists and historians in the future. He also published widely, and wrote the exhaustive four-volume A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum (1975-96). In 1992 he received a doctor of letters degree based on a Council for National Academic Awards assessment of his published work.
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