Sydney P. Ram

Sydney P. Ram is a pipemaker and tobacconist who worked in Chicago through the 1930s and into the early 1940s. His shop stood at 59 West Monroe, in the city's Loop business district. Ram's name is remembered today both for the pipes he left behind and for a handbook he wrote on pipe smoking; because the pipes he made were limited in number, he is mostly known through secondhand collecting.

Shop and Production

Ram's business was not just a point of sale but also a small-scale production and service workshop. A sixteen-page promotional catalogue from the shop's era survives, and it stands as the most concrete document of how the business operated. The catalogue states that the pipes' briar blocks came from Algeria and Corsica. According to the same document, the business prepared its own tobacco blends and also handled pipe repair on-site; a customer could thus find pipes, blends, and maintenance all under one roof.

The pipes generally bear the "Sydney P. Ram" stamp in a script style. In addition, the stamp set includes phrases such as "straight grain" or "imported briar" indicating the quality of the block. Ram's pipes were finished with a light polish; it is said this surface would darken to a deep brown at an unusually fast rate with use.