BACKGROUND ART Curtain rails typically comprise a generally straight rail member which receives rings or runners for carrying the curtain. Decorative finials available for these curtain rails may be supported in a variety of ways, but they are typically either fitted within the rails, around the rails or both within and around the rail ends.

Portions of the finials may be tapered or dimensioned to provide an interference fit within or around the rod ends to provide a secure hold of the finial on the rod. The finial commonly has a threaded recess for receiving a grub screw adapted to bear against the curtain rail to fix the finial. A difficulty arises in mounting such finials and in particular in adjusting their angular position with respect to the longitudinal axis of the rail. The curtain installer fastens the finials on-site after the curtain rail has been fixed, since the finials are otherwise liable to be damaged in transport.

Finials are often not symmetrical about the longitudinal axis of the rail and it is necessary to rotate them for proper alignment, for example, with the plane of a wall. Since the grub screw is positioned at the rear of the rail toward the wall, so as to hide it from normal view, it is difficult in this situation to access the grub screw with a suitable tool and perform the adjustment.

To avoid such difficulties in fixing finials to hollow rails (and also avoid the need for close tolerances on either the interior or exterior to provide the desired interference fit) a sleeve lodged within the hollow rail in which part of the finial is received and held, has been used. The finial includes a protruding shaft that is pressed into the sleeve to form an interference fit. The sleeve, in turn, is pressed or interference- fitted into the hollow rail and is made of a material that is softer than the protruding shaft and may be deformed during insertion of the shaft. This type of fixture is illustrated, for example, in FR 2 744 353 and US 5 642 595. These latter types of finial assembly using a sleeve are adequate for fixing finials in rigid support tubes but they are not without drawbacks. In particular, they are not suited for use with solid curtain rails, or at least with rails without recesses at their ends or a suitable profile for receiving the sleeve. A difficulty also arises in removing or replacing finials of this type. During withdrawal of the finial from the end of the rail, depending upon the manufacturing tolerances on the protruding shaft and the sleeve, the user may also draw out the sleeve together with the finial, requiring it to be subsequently removed and replaced in the rail, before a new finial can be secured.

It will be understood that there is a need for an improved arrangement for attaching and supporting a decorative finial on a curtain rail. In particular, there is a need for a finial assembly that is both simple and economical to fabricate and use, and that is adapted to fix finials to various types of curtain rail, including rails without recesses in their ends. It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.

Any publication cited in this specification is hereby incorporated by reference, however this does not constitute an admission that the document forms part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.

The applicant reserves the right to challenge the pertinency of any publication cited herein, or to challenge the accuracy of any assertion made in a cited publication.

As used herein, the word"comprises"means"includes, but is not limited to"and its derivatives have a corresponding meaning.

All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.

It is acknowledged that the term'comprise'may, under varying jurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusive meaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwise noted, the term'comprise'shall have an inclusive meaning-i. e. that it will be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components it directly references, but also other non-specified components or elements. This rationale will also be used when the term'comprised'or 'comprising'is used in relation to one or more steps in a method or process.

It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a finial assembly including: a decorative finial having one of a shaft and a recess; a socket with a first end having a cavity for receiving an end of a curtain rail, the socket including a second end having the other of the shaft and recess, and a resilient sleeve retained in the recess, the sleeve receiving and engaging the shaft such that pressing the shaft into the sleeve compresses the sleeve against an inner face of the recess thereby fastening the finial to the socket.

The cavity in the socket may be shaped and dimensioned to receive the end of any specific curtain rail in an easy sliding fit and the socket preferably has a threaded recess holding a grub screw adapted to bear against the curtain rail to fix the socket to the curtain rail. In this manner a finial having a protruding shaft can be readily pressed into a sleeve retained in a recess in the socket to fix the finial (or alternatively a finial having a recess in which the sleeve is retained may be pushed over a protruding shaft on the socket). This finial assembly can thus advantageously be assembled in two stages. The first stage is the fastening of the sockets to the ends of a curtain rail, with the sleeve retained in either the socket or the finial, and this step may be done in the factory. This allows the second stage, or final installation of the finial, to be performed readily on site and without tools by simply connecting the parts, and rotating the finial as necessary. Preferably the shaft forms part of the finial and the cavity and recess are portions at the ends of a

continuous opening extending through the socket.

Preferably the sleeve is substantially cylindrical and includes at least one longitudinal slot to provide a degree of flexibility for radial expansion. A shoulder is preferably formed inside the recess and the sleeve may further include at least one tab that protrudes from an outer surface of the sleeve, the sleeve thereby being adapted such that after insertion of the sleeve into the recess the or each tab abuts the shoulder to retain the sleeve in the recess, and such that insertion of the shaft deflects the tab outward.

Preferably the sleeve is fixed in the recess with respect to rotation about a long axis of the sleeve. In the preferred embodiment this is achieved by providing a flange protruding outward from an outer surface of the sleeve, at least one side of the flange abutting a corresponding face of the recess to prevent rotation of the sleeve.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a curtain rail assembly including: an elongate curtain rail and a finial assembly, substantially as described above, fixed to at least one end of the curtain rail.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for fixing a decorative finial on the end of a curtain rail, including the steps: inserting the end of the rail into a cavity in a socket and fixing the socket to the rail such that the socket provides an outwardly extending recess; pressing a resilient sleeve into the recess; providing a decorative finial having a protruding shaft, and pressing the shaft into the sleeve to provide an interference fit between the

shaft and the sleeve.

The elements of the assembly may be economically constructed and have a simple design which minimizes manufacturing costs. In addition, the invention provides for an essentially modular design. By standardizing the dimensions of the shaft, sleeve and recess, only the socket need be modified to suit each curtain rail, thus providing a simple and economical solution.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is an exploded pictorial view of the component parts of the finial assembly of the present invention; Figure 2a is a longitudinal section illustrating the finial assembly of Fig. 1 when assembled; Figure 2b is an end view of the finial assembly of Fig. 2a; Figures 3a and 3b are pictorial views of the sleeve of the finial assembly of Fig.

1; Figure 3c is a side view of the sleeve of Figs 3a and 3b; Figure 3d is a sectional view along line DD of Fig. 3c; Figure 4a is an end view of the socket of the finial assembly of Fig. 1, and Figure 4b is a sectional view along line BB of Fig. 4a.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Referring to Figs. 1,2a and 2b, the finial assembly thereshown includes a decorative finial 3 having a protruding cylindrical shaft 6. A socket 1 has a first end

in which a cavity 17 is formed for receiving an end of a curtain rail 2. The end of the curtain rail 2 is received in the cavity 17, the socket 1 then being fixed to the curtain rail 2 by a grub screw 5. The second end of the socket 1 includes a recess 11 (Figs. 4a, 4b) in which a resilient sleeve 4 is retained. The shaft 6 extends parallel to a longitudinal axis A of the curtain rail 2 and is received in the sleeve 4 forming an interference fit therewith for fastening the finial 1 to the socket 4. When assembled the annular face 16 of the finial 3 abuts the end of the socket 1, hiding the sleeve 4 from view.

The sleeve 4 has two longitudinal slots 19,20 as best seen in Figs 3a-3d. These slots partially split the sleeve 4 to provide flexibility for radial expansion when receiving the shaft 6. On opposing halves of the sleeve 7 are tabs 8,8'that protrude radially outwardly of a generally half-cylindrical outer surfaces 9,9'. A hexagonally shaped flange 10 is formed at the end of the sleeve 7, protruding outwardly from the surfaces 9,9'.

As shown in Figs 4a and 4b, the socket 1 has a circular recess 11 for receiving the sleeve 7. The cavity 17 and recess 11 are parts of an opening extruding between first and second ends of the socket 1. A radially extending shoulder 12 is formed inside the recess 11. Coaxial with the recess 11 is a cylindrical surface 13 of the cavity 17 for engagement with the rail 2. A radially extending screw-threaded recess 14 is provided in the wall of the socket 1 for receiving the grub screw 5. At the end of the socket 1, surrounding the recess 11, is a hexagonally shaped concavity 15 for receiving the flange 10, the sides of the flange 10 abutting the faces 21 to prevent rotation of the sleeve 4.

As best seen in Figs. 2a and 2b, in use the socket 1 is fixed to the rail 2 by the

grub screw 5 and the sleeve 4 is inserted into the socket 1, being retained by the tabs 8,8'engaging the shoulder 12. The finial 3 may conveniently be fixed simply by inserting the shaft 6 into the sleeve 4, this compresses the sleeve 7 against the inner face 18 of the recess 11, grasps the shaft 6 and firmly engages the tabs 8,8' behind the shoulder 12 thereby fastening the finial 3 to the socket 1. Conveniently, the sockets 1 and sleeves 4 can be fastened to the rail in the factory, such that upon installation of the curtain rail the finial can be conveniently fastened without the need for tools.

Aspects of the present invention have been described by way of example only and it should be appreciated that modifications and additions may be made thereto without departing from the scope thereof as defined in the appended claims.