Frank Polk Slot Machine
Frank Polk was an artist so his originals are amazing compared to all the dodgy copies. I believe it was the Indian geezer with a slot machine belly. .original 5¢ pace '8' star bell frank polk miner slot machine: 33000: 308.5¢ & 10¢ royal novelty co. 'the trader' card machine: 12000: 309.5¢ fey duo counter two wheel slot machine: 9000: 310.5¢ & 25¢ watling rol-a-top cherry front slot machine: 11000: 311.rare 25¢ pace mfg. Kitty slot machine: 7500: 312.5¢ a.c. Daily double slot machine. The Polk carving is marked with a gold tag, numbered 22 and is wearing a hat. It is estimated to sell for $25,000-$40,000. Among the earliest productions is an 1899 Mills Double Dewey musical upright slot machine in oak casing. “Mills spared no expense in the design and execution of this model, which took nickels on one side and quarters on the other,” Dan Morphy noted. This novelty 25 cent slot machine features a hand-carved stand assembled sometime in the 1980s, done in the style of Frank Polk. It is solid wood and depicts a bandit with a red bandanna over the bottom half of his face, dark pants tucked into black cowboy boots, and a black coat.
Frank Polk was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1908, but moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1911. His first job, at age sixteen, was in the rodeo, working with his trained burro. He later landed his first cowboy job with the Yolo Ranch at Camp Wood. His 1978 autobiography, F-F-F-Frank Polk: An Uncommonly Frank Autobiography, tells of his adventures as a cowboy.
Frank Polk Slot Machine
Polk’s experiences, as a ranch hand, rodeo cowboy, and dude wrangler; gave him enough material to tell authentic stories of the cowboy in America in his basswood and bronze sculptures. In the early twentieth century there were no cameras, so Polk began to carve what he saw. He wanted to communicate what cowboy life was all about. Polk eventually opened a woodcarving store in Reno, Nevada. He was creating wood sculptures of Western scenes and models of characters for slot machines when George Phippen got him interested in the idea of casting figures in bronze. “Working in wood made it difficult to achieve the action and looseness I wanted,” Polk said, “but after I started working in wax, I found I could obtain these qualities with much more freedom.”
In 1967, Joe Beeler asked him to join the Cowboy Artists of America, “the best thing that ever happened to my career as an artist,” Polk later said. In 1972, he and his wife, Mary, settled in Mayer, Arizona. He bought the Old Mayer State Bank, which Polk had wanted to own ever since he was a boy, and turned it into his studio.
Polk believed that to be an artist is to follow a calling. “I believe that everyone has a talent for something, but many do not find it. What sets an artist apart and makes him different from the other members of society is his creative nature,” he said. “An artist’s creativeness comes from within. It is not something that can be learned in books, although lessons from another artist more mature in his work can help. An artist is born with a gift from the higher-up and a constant inner contact with his maker.”
Frank Polk Slot Machine Pictures
Collections: Leanin’ Tree Museum of Western Art, National Center for American Western Art
Frank Polk Slot Machines
CAA Member from 1967-2000
Born: September 1, 1908
Education: Self-taught