Picture Holder

Abstract

A picture holder comprising separate upper and lower clamping members and separate front and back picture retaining members. The front and back picture retaining members comprise means which cooperate with the clamping members to form the fully assembled picture frame. The upper and lower clamp members may be identical and the front and back picture retaining members may also be identical. In addition, spring means may be provided disposed within the upper and lower clamping members for providing additional picture retaining pressure to the front and back members.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Picture frames or holders were in existence long before the founding of our present patent system. Still, the present patented state of the art is quite crowded and well developed. There is, however, always room for new designs which result in aesthetically attractive picture frames or holders that can be simply and economically manufactured.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a picture frame which is both attractice and can be economically manufactured.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a picture frame which is aesthetically functional in appearance and is formed from a pair of identical front and back picture retaining members and a pair of identical upper and lower clamping members which cooperate with the picture retaining members to hold them in a desired picture retaining relationship.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a picture frame or holder in which pictures can be viewed from the front or back of the holder.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An aesthetically yet functional appearing picture frame or holder is provided in accordance with the present invention which comprises separate upper and lower clamping members and separate front and back picture retaining members. No side members are provided, though provision for side members could be made.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the upper and lower clamping members are identical and are in the form of elongated channel-like members. Further, the front and back retaining members are identical and comprise planar rectangular transparent sheets of material.

More specifically, there is provided a picture frame comprising an upper channel-like clamping member, a lower channel-like clamping member, a front transparent planar picture retaining member, and a back picture retaining member, said front and back members comprising means disposed adjacent their upper outer surface portions when they are disposed in juxtaposed picture retaining relationship which are adapted to cooperate with said upper clamping member for maintaining said front and back members in said picture retaining relationship, and said front and back members further comprising means disposed on their lower outer surface portions when in said juxtaposed picture retaining relationship which are adapted to cooperate with said lower clamping member for maintaining said front and back members in said picture retaining relationship.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a picture frame or holder in accordance with the invention with the clamping members thereof moved out of their usual position for ease of illustration of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of a clamping member in accordance with the invention; and,

FIG. 3 comprises side elevational views of the top portions of four further embodiments of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the perspective view of FIG. 1. It is of course obvious that the upper clamping member 10 and the lower clamping member 12 are not shown in their picture frame or picture holder forming positions. To place the upper clamping member 10 in its picture frame forming position, it must be slid from one side of the juxtaposed front picture retaining member 14 and back picture retaining member 16 along the grooves 18 and 20 with the elongated projecting members 22 and 24 within the grooves 18 and 20, respectively, until the projecting members 22 and 24 completely fill the grooves 18 and 20, respectively. Thus, the ends 26 and 28 of the upper clamping member 10 are flush with the sides 30, 32 and 34, 36 of the front and back picture retaining members 14 and 16, respectively, when the picture frame is fully assembled.

The lower clamping member 12 similarly comprises projecting members 38 and 40 for cooperating with the grooves 42 and 44, respectively, and is assembled in the same manner. It will be appreciated that the terms "upper" and "lower" as well as the terms "front" and "back" are interchangeable since the members 10 and 12 are identical and the members 14 and 16 are also identical.

Side clamping members are not provided. However, side members could be employed, if desired, which could mate with vertical grooves and form a complete outer frame perimeter. The upper and lower members, or the side members, would then be shorter than the edges of the back and front members that they are adjacent. The side members could also be identical. In fact, some constructions may employ identical upper, lower and side clamping members.

The cooperation of the elongated members 22 and 24 with the grooves 18 and 20, respectively, and the cooperation of the projecting members 38 and 40 with the grooves 44 and 42 respectively, provide the means for retaining the front and back members 14 and 16 in a desired picture holding relationship. Thus, the pictures 46, 48 and 50 are retained in the spaced relationship shown in FIG. 1 by the clamping pressure exerted by the front and back members 14 and 16 due to the cooperation between the grooves and the projecting members. Of course, a single picture could be disposed between the front and back members 14 and 16. In addition, the pictures my face either the front or back member since both can be made of a transparent rigid material, such as glass, Plexiglas (Registered Trademark), or Lucite (Registered Trademark). In this regard, the clamping members may be made of any suitable material, such as wood, plastic, etc. The clamping members of the preferred embodiment are made of aluminum and can be manufactured by well known extrusion techniques.

The picture holder may rest on the bottom of lower channel member 12. In the alternative, a bar disposed at an angle could be affixed to the upper clamping member 10. For example, a generally straight bar having a bent portion at its lower end and a bent portion at its upper end could be attached to a side of the upper channel member 10 by means of a suitable fastener, such as a screw. This would not detract from the fact that the upper and lower clamping members 10 and 12 could be made in similar operations and be initially completely identical. If a support is not employed, it will be understood that means need only be provided for manufacturing two distinct elements to form the picture frame since the picture frame only comprises four elements and the four elements comprise two pairs of identical elements.

A modified clamping member 52 is illustrated in FIG. 2. The clamping member 52 comprises a flexed flat spring member 54 which is for applying additional clamping pressure to front and back plate members disposed therein.

Further embodiments of the invention, though by no means all inclusive, are illustrated in FIG. 3. Picture frame A comprises front and back picture retaining members 56 and 58 having elongated grooves 60 and 62, respectively. A C-shaped clamping member 64 is disposed with its ends in the grooves 60 and 62 for applying positive clamping pressure to the plates 56 and 58. The C-shaped clamping member 64 could, in some applications, be applied by flexing it and snapping its ends into the grooves 60 and 62. Since picture frame A could not stand on the bottom of a clamping member 64, suitable support would normally be provided.

It is to be noted that the bottom portions of all of the embodiments illustrated in FIG. 3 are similar to the top portions. However, this of course need not be true since it may be desirable, from an aesthetic viewpoint, to provide different types of front and back members as well as different types of upper and lower clamping members. In any event, the provision of separate front and back members as well as separate upper and lower clamping members result in picture frames which can be simply and economically manufactured.

Picture frame B comprises opposed front and back members 66 and 68 and an upper clamping member 70 which cooperates with reverse chamfers 70 and 72 formed along the upper edges of the front and back members 66 and 68, respectively, to apply the required picture clamping and picture frame forming forces.

Picture frames C and D differ from the previously described picture frames in that the front and back members, 74 and 76, and 78 and 80, comprise protuberances, 82 and 84, and 86 and 88, respectively, which cooperate with upper clamping members 90 and 92 respectively.

While the principles of the invention have been described in connection with specific embodiments thereof, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of the invention as set forth in the accompanying claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A picture frame comprising an upper channel-like clamping member, a lower channel-like clamping member, a front transparent planar rigid picture retaining member, a back planar rigid picture retaining member, said front and back picture retaining members including laterally extending guide means disposed adjacent their upper outer surface portions when they are disposed in juxtaposed picture retaining relationship which cooperate with said upper clamping member for maintaining said front and back members in said picture retaining relationship, said front and back picture retaining members further including laterally extending guide means disposed adjacent their lower outer surface portions when in said juxtaposed picture retaining relationship cooperating with said lower clamping member for maintaining said front and back member in said picture retaining relationship, and spring means disposed between each of said clamping members and the respective outer upper and lower surface portions of said picture retaining members to provide additional clamping pressure to said front and back picture retaining members.

2. A picture frame according to claim 1, wherein said upper and lower clamping members are identical.

3. A picture frame according to claim 1, wherein said front and back members are identical.

4. A picture frame according to claim 3, wherein said upper and lower clamping members are identical.

5. A picture frame according to claim 1, wherein said back picture retaining member is transparent.

6. A picture frame according to claim 5, wherein the ends of said clamping members are flush with the sides of said front and back members when the picture frame is fully assembled.