Giovanni Tiranti, later known as John, was born in Turin, Italy in 1873 or 1874. He was a successful woodcarver. Just before the turn of the 20th century, Tiranti immigrated to England where he established an eponymous company focused on publishing art books and in providing sculptors' equipment and tools, which still operates in the 21st century.
Book publisher and entrepreneur Giovanni Tiranti, later known as John, was born in Turin, Italy in 1873 or 1874. He was a successful woodcarver. Just before the turn of the 20th century, Tiranti immigrated to England. In 1895 he founded an edge tool making company in High Holborn, in central London, under the anglicised name John Tiranti. The initial business quickly grew and changed names and locations several times; it was known as John Tiranti Ltd. and John Tiranti & Co during Tiranti’s life, remaining focused on the business of modelers’ tool making, trading in edge tools, woodcarving, and woodcarving requisites. From 1911, the company branched into bookselling and fine arts publishing alongside tool selling and trading sculpture materials. As early as 1914, Tiranti authored and published the Illustrated List of Plaster Casts, which explored examples from both ancient and modern carving. In 1920, Tiranti published Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret’s Church by Albert Edward Bullock and A. D. Brown, which included 70 photographs of sculptural and architectural details from the two locations. The following year, A Collection of Antique Vases, Tripods, Candelabra, which included over 120 reproductions of the engravings by Henry Moses personally selected by Tiranti, was released. Tiranti had three sons with his wife Genoveffa, Cesare, Alec (Alexander) and Dom (Dominic), who eventually inherited their father's business.
Since its inception in 1895, the Tiranti name has been associated with art book publishing, bookshops, sculpture, and sculptural tools. Although John died in 1926, Alec and Dom Tiranti continued the business under the same publishing name. However, the company’s headquarters in London’s Maple Street were demolished by a bomb during the Blitz in the Second World War. Under the management of the two sons, the company continued with two related but distinct fields: first, selling sculptor’s tools, materials and equipment; second, selling new and antiquarian books, as well as publishing art books with a focus on architecture, furniture and sculpture. The bookshop was a successful endeavour and operated as a separate entity under the name London Art Bookshop Ltd.
Subsequently, particularly during the 1950s and 1960s, the name Alec Tiranti became a well-established and respected publishing house in the field of furniture, sculpture and architecture. Titles on furniture included: R.W. Symonds’ Veneered walnut furniture 1660-1760(1947) and British Furniture Today (1955) by the Hungarian-born émigré architect and designer, Ernő Goldfinger. Books on the topic of sculpture and sculptural technique included: sculptor, Leon Underwood’s Masks of West Africa (1951) and Hubert Montagu Percy’s New Materials in Sculpture (1962). Alec Tiranti was also a professional musician with a degree in music, actively involved in film work, and performed at balls and dances between the wars. After serving in the London Fire Service during the Second World War and dedicating long hours to his business postwar, he died suddenly in 1971 and the architecture-furniture-sculpture publishing ceased with this death. However, the company continued growing and, in the 1980s, it was known as one of the largest, if not the largest, European manufacturer of tools for sculpting. The founder, Giovanni Tiranti died in 1926, most likely in London. Although the location, precise name and focus of the company have changed numerous times throughout its history, in 2024, it is still in operation under the name Tiranti, with headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent and it continues to serves as an art supply retailer and bookshop.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [John Tiranti]
Publications related to [John Tiranti] in the Ben Uri Library