Easel

Claim 1

An easel for supporting a picture blank facewise to a person positioned in front of it comprising, a. an upright standard, b. a rear leg assembly on said standard for supporting the latter in upright position, c. said leg assembly including a rearwardly extending segment hingedly connected at one of its ends to said standard and hingedly connected at its other end to one end of an upright segment, d. the other end of said upright segment being connected with one end of a second upright segment in a releasable slidable joint, e. said second upright segment having its other end hingedly connected to said standard above the hinge connection of said rearwardly extending segment with the standard, whereby said leg segments can be folded up against the back of said standard by releasing said slidable joint between said two upright segments and pivoting the rearwardly extending segment and said second upright segment toward the standard, f. a cross arm on said standard, g. connecting means rotatably connecting said cross arm on said standard with the axis of rotation extending from front to rear of said easel whereby said cross arm and picture blank thereon can be rotatably positioned in front of the person, h. said rotatable connecting means comprising a friction connection whereby said holder will remain in its rotatably adjusted position except when intentionally rotated, i. said rotatable connecting means between said cross arm and said standard being vertically adjustable on said standard to position said cross arm at the desired height, j. a pair of brackets on said cross arm between which a picture blank can be clamped for firmly holding it on said arm, k. at least one of said brackets being adjustable along the length of said cross arm to adjust to different dimensioned picture blanks, l. and releasable connecting means between said movable bracket and said cross arm for anchoring said latter bracket in a selected position.