Iwan Ries & Co.

Iwan Ries & Co. is a Chicago-based tobacconist house; the business states in its own marketing that it is the oldest tobacconist in the United States still owned by the same family. It is not itself a pipe workshop; its main business is keeping a broad selection of pipes and tobacco together, alongside commissioning pipes carrying its own name from various makers.

In this respect, it is known in the pipe world not as a "manufacturer" but as a "retail house" that shapes the product through its own commissions.

Founding and Name Change

The business's origin traces to a shop called E. Hoffman & Co., founded in 1857 by German immigrant Edward Hoffman. Its first location was the famous Sherman House Hotel of the period; the hotel's guests and the surrounding business district formed a natural customer base. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed this building, and the business moved to a new address.

To run the growing business, Hoffman took on his nephew Iwan Ries in 1891, and when he retired in 1898 he left the shop to him. Ries sold off the manufacturing arm and changed the shop's name to Iwan Ries & Co. According to accounts, the chain of succession continued in later generations under the Levi surname: Stanley Levi, husband of Ries's daughter Rosalie, took over the business, and in the next generation Chuck Levi joined; the business is run today by Kevin Levi. The claim of unbroken family ownership spanning five generations rests largely on the business's own promotional material.