NEW YORK — Sunbeam Bread has been a culinary mainstay in kitchens across America for decades and its brand representative has long been Little Miss Sunbeam, now a registered trademark. The Sunbeam product imagery shows a blonde-haired girl of about four or five years of age with bright blue eyes that perfectly match the color of the tie in her hair and her dress. She is typically shown with her little hands curled around a slice of buttered bread she is happily eating.

Beloved advertising characters such as Little Miss Sunbeam, Mr. Peanut, Smokey Bear, Mr. Clean and the Pillsbury Doughboy take on a life apart from the products they hawk and have become collectible in their own right. Tin die-cut signs, store displays and promotional merchandise ranging from clocks to thermometers and even dolls are sought by collectors of advertising and country store goods. Those who have a keen sense of nostalgia for their youth, and perhaps recall eating a slice right out of the bag on the car ride home from the grocery store, also gravitate to these items.

Sunbeam Bread was started in 1942 in the Philadelphia area by the cooperative Quality Bakers of America, which still has regional bakery members around the country that sell Sunbeam products in grocery stores.

In 1942, the cooperative commissioned artist Ellen Segner, famous for her Dick and Jane magazine illustrations, to create a brand icon of a young tot enjoying its bread. She created her timeless image after spying a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl playing in Washington Square Park in New York City and sketching her. “From these drawings, she developed the original oil painting of Miss Sunbeam®, which hangs today in the offices of Quality Bakers of America,” according to the cooperative’s website.

In all, Segner rendered more than 30 paintings of this fictional character, which have been reproduced on plastic bread wrappers, print marketing and outdoor advertisements. The sunny little girl didn’t just become an advertising icon; she became a cultural reference for men fighting in Vietnam. According to Gordon L. Rottman’s book, Grunt Slang in Vietnam: Words of the War, soldiers called themselves members of the “Little Miss Sunbeam Club” when they remained unwounded, in a dark riff off of the bread’s marketing slogan of “no holes.”

Signs are perhaps the most widely-collected Sunbeam Bread items, and they earn the highest prices. These signs can be diagonal or figural, single or double-sided. Sunbeam was best known for its bread, but it made other baked goods as well. A vertical metal sign emblazoned with the phrase, “Come In! We Serve Sunbeam Rolls” achieved $3,500 plus the buyer’s premium in February 2022 at Route 32 Auctions. The sign stands 55in tall and dates to 1952. It’s a prime example of the desirability of early advertising.

Figural trade signs have always been popular. A die-cut tin Sunbeam advertising sign in the shape of a loaf of bread made $2,750 plus the buyer’s premium in December 2018 at Dan Morphy Auctions. The rare sign, measuring 55½in long, not only has striking graphics but its colors are unfaded, which indicates it might never have been used.

Store-used marketing items are highly popular with collectors, especially store display merchandise that was gently used or is described as “new old stock,” meaning it likely was kept on a shelf, an attic or storeroom for years, never reaching the sales floor. Cardboard figures are especially sought-after. A die-cut cardboard shelf sitter realized $700 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2016 at Showtime Auction Services. The subject matter is unusual, adding to its value. It pictures Miss Sunbeam holding a parasol instead of the classic imagery of her eating bread.

While signs typically attract the largest bids, Sunbeam produced all sorts of advertising and promotional materials, including a “Reach for Sunbeam Bread” thermometer. It sold for $550 plus the buyer’s premium in the same Morphy auction that featured the sign shaped like a loaf of bread.

Many early 20th-century companies created door pushes and pulls to promote themselves. Usually made of metal and featuring a company’s name and logo or slogan, these items helped protect shopkeepers’ doors from damage and offered great advertising opportunities — every customer that walked into the store would see and touch it. A single-sided Sunbeam Bread advertising door push in painted blue metal with a chrome handle, featuring a loaf of bread and the iconic image of Miss Sunbeam eating a slice, realized $400 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2021 at Vogt Auction Texas.

Little Miss Sunbeam may now be an octogenarian but she is still inspiring smiles, reminding collectors of their childhoods and introducing new generations to Sunbeam bread. As long as she appears on Sunbeam packaging, and as long as kids eat brown-bagged sandwiches for lunch, collectors will seek ephemera emblazoned with the image of the immortal preschooler.