Pocket for photograph holder

Abstract

 A photograph holder formed of a cover containing a plurality of pockets (10) open along one of their sides (11) and joined to each other and to the cover along another of their sides, at least one of the two faces of such pocket being solely formes of a perimetral frame (14).

Description

[0001] This invention relates to a photograph holder. The term "photograph holder" is intended to refer to holders sold or given away by dealers in photographic materials and designed to contain a variable number of photographie prints. Such holders are normally composed of a certain number of dou ble transparent plastic pockets, open on their upper side and heat-sealed together along a vertical middle boundary line in such a way as to create two pockets, there being also heat-sea led along the said line the spine of a non-transparent plastic cover containing the pockets, of greater consistency than the pockets themselves though hardly ever rigid.

[0002] The result is a holder whose intrinsic value is rather low, but one that is practical for orderly assembly of a certain number of photographs, the same bieng inserted in the said pockets via the afore mentioned open upper side of the same. Teh main drawback of these holders, however, lies in the fact that, when the pockets are turned over to allow the photographs they contain to be looked at, the transparent plastic of which the said pockets are composed creates an interplay of light and shadows whereby the picture reproduced on the said photographs is distorted, and it is in some cases necessary to appropriately alter the position of the holder, since if this is not doen the light reflected makes it totally impossible to observe the said picture.

[0003] It is thus the object of the pres ent invention to

this drawback, which leads may persons to refuae to employ holders of this kind, in spite of their low cost and practical nature, by constructing the said pockets in such a way that at least one of their faces is formed of an ordinary frame that both contains and supports the photograph and allows it to be seen without having to turn, slant or continually alter the position of the holder, since the said photograph, with the exception of a thin strip along its perimeter, is directly pre sented to the observer without there being any means of support between the photograph and his eye.

[0004] This solution permits the construction of photograph holders of various shapes and with various characteristics that may be either of the inexpensive kind currently available on the market or of a more elegant and luxurious type and even composed of materials other than plastics, as will be explained later.

[0005] To accomplish these objectives, therefore, the present invention provides for the construction of a photograph holder consisting of a cover within which there are contained a plurality of pockets open along one of their sides, joined to each other and to the said cover along another of their sides, wherein at least one of the two faces of each pockets is solely formes of a perimetral frame.

[0006] A description will now be given of several embodiments of the invention each of equal utility and each employing the same inno vative step taken with the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 shows one embodiment of the photograph holder according to the invention;

fig. 2, fig. 3 and fig. 4 are sections taken on the line II-II in fig. 1 and illustrate three variations of the embodiment;

fig? 5 and fig. 7 are opened-out views of two further embodiments; fig. 6 and fig. 8 are views in the direction of the arrow A in fig. 5 and fig. 7 respectively and relate to the said embodiments in their finished form.

[0007] Referring to the drawings, a pocket 10 of conventional type in transparent plastic material is illustrated in fig. 1, one side 11 of the said pocket 10 being open to permit insertion of a photograph 12 while another side 13 is heat-sealed to form the spine connecting and joining the pocket 10 to the other pockets in the bolder and to the spine of the cover of the latter.

[0008] According to the invention, the visible face of the pocket 10 is not a continuous surface but a frame 14 that holds and supports the photograph 12 along its perimeter with the result that nearly the entire surface of the photograph 12 is directly visible, and there is thus no need to turn or slant the photograph holder to be able to obtain a clear view of the photograph it contains, since there is no longer an interplay of light and shadows tending to diminish their sharpness.

[0009] Turning to fig. 2, it can be seen that the pocket 10 has a frame only on the face shown as the front face in fig. 1. This arrange ment is suitable for cases in which only one photograph is held in a pocket.

[0010] In fig. 3, on the other hand, the rear face is also provided with a frame because on this occasion the pocket 10 is required to hold two photographs facing each other back to back, while fig. 4 shows surface 10 from the two facea of which there extend around each perimeter two frames 14 to enable two phtographs 12 to be inserted as in fig. 3 but with the additional feature that there is an intermediate support 10 that stiffens the pocket 10 and separates the two photographs 12 from each other. Conveniently, particularly in the second of the two cases just described, the double frame is made of a reasonably firm material to enable the photographs to be inserted and withdrawn easily and also to provide a sufficiently rigid and therefore manageable support. If necessary, the frame itself can be opaque rather than transparent, since no more than a small edge of the perimeter of the photograph would be hidden from view.

[0011] The embodiments illustrated in fig. 1 to 4 inclusive are clearly more economical insofar as they are comparable with known photograph holders currently available on the market, the only diffe rence in their construction lying in the creation of a frame 14 around at least one of the two faces of the pocket 10, all aspects of the material construction of the photograph holder known to the prior art remaining unchanged.

[0012] According to the present invention, however, various even more practical and elegant photograph holders can be created as further embodiments.

[0013] Fig. 5 and fig? 6, for example, show that the pocket can be formed of a single sheet (of paper or plastic, for example) divided into two faces 16 and 17 by means of a longitudinal fold 15. Face 16 constitutes the frame 14 and the rigid la.teral flap 13, whereas face 17 is whole and bears adhesive side tabs 18 and_'19. Assembly takes place by bending tab 18 inwards and then bending face 17 to bring it into contact with the frame 14 so that tab 18 adheres to the frame 14 along its flap 13. Lastly, tab 19 is bent over the frame 14 opposite to the flap 13 to create the complete pocket, as shown in fig. 6.

[0014] Flap 13 is proveded with round holes 20, square holes 21or rectan gular holes 22 depending on the type of holder used to carry the pockets. This may be of conventional type, such as those currently used to hold sheets of paper or reports, and made in may different ways, and need not therefore be described, since all its various forms are known to those skilled in the art. By contrast with the embodiment shown in fig. 5 and fig. 6,

[0015] in the embodiment in fig. 7 and 8 both tabs 18, 19 are turned towards face 16, but while tab 19 adheres tothe frame 14 as before tab 18 adheres to the flap 13 and must be or need not be itself provided with holes corresponding to holes 20, 21 or 22, depending on whether or not it convers the said holes 20, 21 or 22.

[0016] The two embodiments last mentioned above are those that permit the employment of a holder with openable rings or a metal coil that can be threaded into the.holes in the pockets, or furthermore holders with a plastic cylindrical spine fitted with opposing teeth, or many other similar forms, as already stated. In each case, the result is an elegant holder with pockets that can even be extracted and changed and made of sufficiently firm and rigid material.

[0017] An essential feature of the invention in all cases is that in both the inexpensive embodiments (figs. 1-4 inclusive) and the elegant embodiments (figs. 5 to 8 inclusive) the pocket has an opening to receive a photograph and that the latter is simply held along its perimeter by a frame derived from the said pocket to prevent full and correct observation of the picture presented bu such photograph from being impeded by the presence of reflections and shadows.

[0018] It is clear that in the embodiments illustrated in figs. 5 to 8 inclusive face 17 may also be a simple frame in the same way as face 16, and that in this case tabs 18, 19 constitute lateral extensions of the said frame instead od a flat surface without thereby departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A photograph holder consisting of a cover in which there are contained a plurality of pockets open along one of their sides, joined to each other and the said cover along another of their sides, wherein at least one of the two faces of each pocket is solely formed of a perimetral frame.

2. A photograph holder as claimed in Claim 1 in which both faces of the pocket are solely formed of a perimetral frame.

3. A photograph holder as claimed in Claim 2 in which a surface integral with the closed edges of the pocket is interposed between the two frames.

4. A photograph holder as claimed in any preceding Claim wherein the pochet is double and electrically sealed along the common frame to the other pockets and to the cover.

5. A photograph holder as claimed in Claim 1 and Claim 2 in which the pockets are constructed from a single sheet of material folded longitudinally to form two faces and provided on one of such faces with a flap for attachment to the cover and along the other face with means for the lateral adhesion of the said other face to the first-mentioned face.

Drawing