The present invention relates to a wall hook according to the preamble of claim 1 for mounting paintings, posters, wall clocks and other objects on a wall.

Conventional wall hooks employ hammer-driven nails for fixing the hook on a wall. When such a hook is detached, the nail holes remain visible on the wall.

A method is known in the prior art from Swedish patent ap¬ plication No. 8,405,602-7 for mounting paintings and other similar objects on wall. According to cited patent applica¬ tion No. 8,405,602-7, such a hook comprises a flat body part incorporating one or a greater number of pins aligned slanting downward. The flat body part can be fixed to the frame of a painting by means of a nail, screw or glue.

The present invention is related to a wall hook comprising a body part, fixing means such as pins aligned obliquely downward, and on the other side of the body part relative to said means, a peg or a hook. The upper portion of the wall hook body part incorporates downward oriented pins which are designed to carry the weight of the painting or other object to be mounted on the wall. The lower portion of the wall hook body part incorporates obliquely upward oriented pins which are designed to fix the wall hook to the wall. Whilst obliquely oriented pins are most advantageous as fixing means of the wall hook, such pins can be replaced by corresponding elements such as a barbed blade. Suitable material for the wall hook is plastic and/or metal. While the wall hook can be fabricated from a homogeneous material, however, the fixing mean is advanta¬ geously made from metal and the rest of the wall hook from a plastic material. The wall hook can be fixed to a wall¬ paper-coated concrete wall, wood panel or chipboard wall as

well as to a gypsum board wall. The characterizing proper¬ ties of the wall hook are disclosed in the appended claims.

Fixing of conventional wall hooks using nails as fixing elements require the use of a hammer for driving the nails in the wall .

The wall hook according to the present invention is simply fixed to the wall without any tools by first manually pressing against the wall and then pushing a locking tab to its lower position. When the oblique-pin-fixed wall hook according to the invention is detached, no detectable indentations remain in the wall . The wall hook can be locked in place by any locking arrangement having the required locking means for fixed locking of the downward oriented pins and the upward oriented pins .

The wall hook disclosed in Swedish patent application No. 8,405,602-7 cannot be locked to the wall. When subjected to a push of the supported object such as a painting from below, the wall hook is detached from the wall. Besides being handicapped in this respect, such a wall hook also differs from the wall hook according to the present inven¬ tion by being permanently fixed to the object being supported.

The invention is next examined in greater detail with reference to the appended drawings, in which

Figure 1 is a side view of the oblique-pin-fixed wall hook with the locking tab 6 pushed to the locking position; and

Figure 2 is a perspectively slanted front view of the oblique-pin-fixed wall hook with the locking tab 6 pushed to the open position.

The upper portion of the base part 1 has at least one pin 2 oriented obliquely downward designed to carry the weight of the object to be hung on the wall.

The lower portion of the base part includes a locking tab 6 hingedly attached to the base part and having at least one pin 3 oriented obliquely upward. These locking pins are provided to prevent the detachment of the wall hook from the wall at a push exerted from below.

The side of the base part is provided with a small extension snaps 5 which locks the locking tab 6 to its flat position. The locking takes place with the help of a small projection 7 formed to the tab.

The upper portion of the base part includes a peg or a hook 4 for hanging a painting or similar object to the wall hook.

The fixing of the wall hook to the wall is started by initially having the locking tab 6 in its angled open position.

First, the wall hook is manually pushed obliquely downward along the wall surface. Next, the wall hook is locked in place by pushing the locking tab 6 to its flat position to which it is locked by virtue of the extension snap 5 and the projection 7.

The detachment of the wall hook takes place by first prying the extension snap 5 sideways to free the locking tab and . then flipping the locking tab 6 to the angled open posi¬ tion. Subsequently, the wall hook can be lifted obliquely uoward off the wall.

To one skilled in the art it obvious that the invention is not limited to the exemplifying embodiments described

above, but rather can be varied within the scope and spirit of the appended claims.