“Music to My Ears” — J. Kendrick Polyresin Pair #136B & #136G, Universal Statuary Chicago, Signed 1971

From the late golden years of Universal Statuary Corp of Chicago — the Lucchesi-family workshop that, from the 1930s into the 1980s, supplied a remarkable share of mid-century American homes with cast figural decor, lamps, and store displays. Founded by Italian-trained craftsmen and built around traditional Continental modeling, Universal grew into one of the country's most prolific producers of decorative figural sculpture. By 1971, when this pair left the Ogden Avenue plant, the company was working in cast polyresin: durable enough for the open shelves of a thousand living rooms, soft enough to take fine sculptural detail. What lifts these above the run of mid-century cast figural pieces is the signature. Both are signed by hand on the back, in dark script — J. Kendrick '71 — directly above the molded Universal Statuary Corp Chicago mark and 1971 copyright. Kendrick was one of the in-house sculptors Universal kept on staff through the 1970s; signed examples from his hand are sought by collectors of mid-century figural sculpture, and a matched pair surviving with both signatures legible and both pedestals intact is a quieter find than it looks. The collector market knows this small piece of theatre as "Music to My Ears" — and, more rarely, as "Stop the Noise." The boy (#136B) is caught mid-note on his saxophone, eyes wide with concentration, hands wrapped around the bell of the horn. The girl (#136G) leans her head into one hand, the other pressed flat to her ear, an elaborate ruffled bonnet and beaded yoke spilling down her front — the universal expression of a sister who has heard quite enough practice for one afternoon. Each rests on a turned, ribbed pedestal with a sculpted rose and leaves at the base. Both figures stand approximately ten inches tall and are finished in a warm sealed off-white that has aged into the soft ivory of old piano keys, with the recesses gone slightly deeper to throw the modeling into relief. The polyresin body is dense and weighty in the hand. They show as a pair beautifully — the joke only lands when they're together. For anyone drawn to mid-century American figural work, signed pieces from Universal's Chicago studio, or simply a small everyday narrative on a console table, this pair is the kind of mid-century object that has earned its way into a second household intact.

Details

• Maker: Universal Statuary Corp, Chicago, Illinois
• Sculptor: signed J. Kendrick, dated '71 (1971)
• Model numbers: #136B (boy with saxophone) and #136G (girl, hands to ears) — sold as a pair
• Known as: "Music to My Ears" (also "Stop the Noise" in some collector listings)
• Material: cast polyresin with sealed off-white finish
• Height: approximately 10 inches each, on integrated turned pedestals with sculpted floral relief
• Marks: hand-signed J. Kendrick '71 in script; molded UNIVERSAL STATUARY CORP CHICAGO © 1971 with model numbers
• Era: 1971, very early Retro period (American mid-century idiom)
• Sold as a matched pair

Condition

Very good vintage condition. Both figures are intact and structurally sound, with the original sealed off-white finish still bright across the highlights and a soft warm patina that has settled naturally into the carved hair, drapery, and pedestal recesses — exactly the way unforced age reads on a piece of this period. Signatures and molded marks remain crisp and legible. The sculpted rose and leaves at the base of each pedestal are complete and unchipped. No cracks, no repairs, and no missing elements observed; minor age-appropriate surface marks consistent with more than fifty years of careful display.