Philip Hook - Breakfast at Sotheby’s, An A-Z of the Art World

April 2021

Following Lily Ackerman’s recommendation in her ‘At home with… ‘ interview, I picked up Breakfast at Sotheby’s again. I am a big fan of Philip’s books, or maybe I should say of Philip. I first came across his name as co-author of Popular 19th Century Painting – A Dictionary of European Genre Painters, that he wrote with the wonderful Lord Poltimore. I subsequently had the privilege of working with both Philip and Mark for a number of years, incredible experts in the art market, amazingly knowledgeable in their fields but also such wonderful human beings, incredibly kind, thoughtful, entertaining and very funny.

I have all of Philip’s books, some were written as I worked with him at Sotheby’s, I was (and am) always looking forward to the next intrigue. I have to say it took me some time to get hold of the sold-out book Optical Illusion - A Romance of the Art World. This was his first novel and one in which I recognised so much of the world I was working in. It is a hilarious read but for those in the field at the time it could be a diary of working life.

I am not surprised that the Sunday Times, Guardian, Spectator, Financial Times, and Mail on Sunday, have named Breakfast at Sotheby’s - An A-Z of the Art World Book of the Year. As Frank Whitford (Sunday Times) summarises: ‘It’s hard to write an amusing book about art that has some serious things to say, but Hook has done it.’

I related to the remark in the introduction where Philip mentions that when you walk into a museum you ask yourself ‘who is it by?’ and ‘do I like it?’. But, as he says, in an auction house you also ask yourself ‘how much is it worth?’ and ‘how much will it be worth in 5-10 years?’. From personal experience the first two questions quickly got eliminated when walking around a museum and I would instantly think of what the values of the works on display were. Being used to lightly touching the surface of paintings to check the condition, to see if the canvas was lined or to examine any craquelure up-close I have set off museum alarms numerous times.

You’ll be amused by opening remarks of certain topics such as Middle brow artists (‘A regrettable snobbery exists in the art world’), Collectors (‘Not everyone who buys art is a collector’), Off Days (‘Good artists sometimes paint bad pictures’) Restauration (‘Paintings aren’t always what they seem’) and Spoofs (‘It is good to be reminded now and then of the absurdity and the pretension of artists’). But this book also contains a lot of useful information that you would only get from an insider who has worked in the field for a long time. Worth acquiring, you will pick it up again and again for reference.