James Cummins Bookseller

[N.p., Newark or New York: 1908-1916].

First editions, each produced in very small number of copies. Illustrated with original photographs throughout (early volumes with manuscript captions and borders). Most volumes unpaginated. 9 vols. 8vo. Original printed card wrappers, yapp edges. Wrappers worn, some marginal chipping and losses, internally clean OCLC records only the 1913 Log (123529162, Brooklyn Public); Morris & Howland, p. 68. Item #352543

Delightful series of privately printed narratives of the sailing and crusing excursions of the Brothers Hine (Thomas, Charles, and Edward) in the Totem II, built in Brown’s shipyard at Tottenville, Staten Island. (The first Totem was a more modest vessel owned ca. 1903 and swiftly disposed of).
The trips, ranging from the Long Island Sound to Martha's Vineyard, are recounted in a suitably breezy style. The brothers were keen sailors.
The brothers Thomas Avery Hine (1855-1933), Yale class of 1877, and Charles Gilbert Hine (1859-1931) were publishers of the Insurance Monitor and a related directory; both were talented photographers who had been founding members of the Newark Camera Club in the early 1880s. A collection of C.G. Hines’ photographs documenting buildings threatened with demolition is preserved at the New-York Historical Society (PR 82). The brothers helped to develop Biscayne Bay in Florida.
This is the complete series of annual logs of the Totem produced through 1916. The cast of recurring characters includes the Skipper (often shown in contemplative poses), the Passenger, the Chief Engineer, and occasionally the Commodore. There is some good natured chaffing in the accounts and records of visits and vessels sighted, with occasional sobering mentions of fires on steamboats or other yachts ; the subtitles become progressively more elaborate. The photographs are nicely composed and in excellent state of preservation. The hand lettered captions are suggestive of the very small number of copies produced. These are family copies, many inscribed to the third brother, Edward.

1. Log of the Totem II. 1908. How she was builded and of her internal arrangements and the several sorts of folks that infested her. Frontispiece and 7 photographs. Burgundy wrappers. Inscribed on flyleaf, “Mr. Edward A. Hine from the Skipper November 6, 1908”.
2. Going Down to the Sea in Totem, 1909. Frontispiece and 7 photographs. Black wrappers. Inscribed on flyleaf, “Mr. E.A. Hine compliments of the Skipper Dec. 2, 1909”.
3. Log of the Totem 1910. 7 photographs. Tan wrappers printed in green. Inscribed at the foot of the title, “Mr. E.A. Hine with Totem’s compliments. Feb 20, 1911”.
4. 1911 Log of the Totem. Frontispiece. 38 pp. Red wrappers. Inscribed on flyleaf, “Compliments of the SKipper, 1911”.
5. Log of the Totem 1912. Frontispiece in printed border and 3 photographs. Tan wrappers (lower wrapper perished, marginal loss at corner of last leaf). Inscribed on flyleaf, “Mr. E.A. Hine compliments of Totem”.
6. 1913. Log of the Totem. As writ from day to day. Frontispiece in printed border and 3 photographs. Brown wrappers (spine perished)
7. Log of the Totem 1914. A lean log but our own. Frontispiece in printed border. Biscuit wrappers printed in red and black. Printed slip, Compliments of the Brothers Hine.
8. Log of the Totem 1915. Tan wrappers, lower wrapper perished.
9. Log of the Totem 1916. Frontispiece and 10 photographs, captioned in ink. Grey wrappers,bottom corner of front wrapper perished.

A notable record of American leisure activity.

Price: $3,500.00 Free International Delivery