Alec Tiranti

Giovanni (John) Tiranti founded the Company in 1895, as John Tiranti & Co., in High Holborn, and within a year moved to Foley Street, London W1. He later moved to 13 Maple Street, W1, where the Company became John Tiranti Ltd. The Company remained there until 1941, when the building was destroyed by a direct hit with a bomb. Giovanni Tiranti died i... n 1926, and his two sons Alec and Dom carried on. Throughout all this time the Company sold sculptor's tools, materials and equipment as well as new and antiquarian books. They also published art books. Alec designed the folding modelling stands and concentrated on the tools and publishing. Dom specialised in rare books (not just in the art field). When World War Two started, Dom, not eligible for service because he was blind in one eye, went to America for the duration. Alec went into the National Fire Service and carried on the business in his spare time. When the Maple Street shop was blitzed, Alec moved what was left of the tools, books and equipment to Fitzroy Street. He was helped by customer Ron Dunton, who went into the ruins to help salvage what was possible before the building collapsed completely. Within six months the business was blitzed again and very little indeed was saved. Alec then carried on in a limited way at 137 Albert Street in Camden Town where he lived and converted the front bedroom to a shop. The story is told of how, in 1945 at the end of the war, sculptor Sean Crampton arrived, in uniform, to buy some tools, just in time to help unload some materials being delivered. During the Albert Street period, Alec's wife joined the business, and in fact she was a director until she retired in 1991, aged 84. In 1945, Alec purchased the premises at 72 Charlotte Street, and what little there was of the shop in Camden Town was moved to the new premises. At this time, Alec's mother came back into the business for several years until she died. Being still Italian (and so an alien during the war) she had not been allowed to be a director of a British ...Read More