Erotic furniture

Erotic furniture, also known as sex furniture, is any form of furniture that can act as an aid to sexual activity. While almost anything can be used for this purpose, the most common form of furniture employed for sexual activity is the bed, but couches and sofas come a close second. These are not strictly erotic furniture, as their primary use is not erotic.

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A spanking bench

Specifically designed furniture for erotic purposes can include

• Devices for spanking and flagellation such as the Berkley Horse
• Sex swings
• Sex Gliders
• Devices for using gravity to aid in lovemaking without the use of complicated slings.
• Fisting slings
• Various types of angled foam wedges or specially designed pillows that support various sex positions. See Liberator shapes for example or the ergonomically based Lovebumpers.
• Bondage equipment such as stocks and pillories
• Smotherboxes and other queening stools.
• The Love Chair, a curious chair made of curved tubular steel, articulated in several ways and designed to facilitate otherwise impossible sexual acts. This device was advertised in men's magazines in the mid-1970s, and is seen in at least one of Nina Hartley's Guide to videos, but it is no longer commercially available.

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A woman is spanked, while kneeling on a specially-made bench for the purpose.

• Sawhorses, which are shaped much like the version used for carpentry, but have a sharpened edge and is primarily sat on to achieve a feeling similar to a crotch rope in bondage.

King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, who was heavily overweight, used a specially constructed "love seat" (siege d'amour) when he visited the famous brothel, Le Chabanais in Paris. The piece still exists and a replica is exhibited at the Musée de l'Erotisme in Pigalle.

See also

Edward Gorey's The Curious Sofa, (1961), a neo-Victorian pseudo-porno send-up consisting of non-illustrations—there's always a potted palm or something in the way. One caption reads "That evening in the library Scylla, one of the guests who had certain anatomical peculiarities, demonstrated the 'Lithuanian Typewriter', assisted by Ronald and Rupert, two remarkably well-set-up young men from the village." The Curious Sofa of the title is approached with some misgivings by the house-party guests at the end.

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Kemper, Alfred M. "Love Couches Design Criteria", 1972, Los Angeles. Library of Congress #75-36170. 101 pages. Design criteria for assistive furniture, with sections on accommodation of disabled persons.