Erotic furniture, represents any form of furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 that can act as an aid to sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse

Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...

. Whilst almost anything can be used for this purpose, the most common form of furniture employed for sex is the bed, but couches and sofas come a close second. These are not strictly erotic furniture, as their primary use is not erotic.

Specifically designed furniture for erotic purposes can include

• Devices for spanking
  Erotic spanking
  Erotic spanking is the act of spanking another person for the sexual arousal or gratification of either or both parties...
  
   and flagellation
  Flagellation
  Flagellation or flogging is the act of methodically beating or whipping the human body. Specialised implements for it include rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails and the sjambok...
  
   such as the Berkley Horse
  Berkley Horse
  The Berkley Horse is a BDSM apparatus, supposedly designed for, or by, Theresa Berkley in 1828. She referred to it as a "chevalet".According to the account of Henry Spencer Ashbee:He continues:...
  
  
• Sex swings
• 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
  Liberator shapes
  Liberator Shapes are adult pillows used for sexual positioning. Founded in 2001, Liberator Inc., also known as OneUp Innovations, operates out of their factory in Atlanta, GA...
  
   for example or the ergonomically based Lovebumpers.
• Bondage
  Bondage (BDSM)
  Bondage is the use of restraints for the sexual pleasure of the parties involved. It may be used in its own right, as in the case of rope bondage and breast bondage, or as part of sexual activity or BDSM activity.- Private bondage :...
  
   equipment such as stocks
  Stocks
  Stocks are devices used in the medieval and colonial American times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by...
  
   and pillories
  Pillory
  The pillory was a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse, sometimes lethal...
  
  
• 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
  Nina Hartley
  Nina Hartley is an American pornographic actress, pornographic film director, sex educator, feminist, and author.-Early life:...
  
  's Guide to videos, but it is no longer commercially available.
• 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

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

, Le Chabanais

Le Chabanais

Le Chabanais was one of the best known and most luxurious brothels in Paris, operating near the Louvre at 12 rue Chabanais from 1878 until 1946, when brothels were outlawed in France....

 in Paris. The piece still exists and is exhibited at the Musée de l'Erotisme

Museum of Eroticism

Museum of Eroticism is a sex museum in Paris devoted to the erotic art collections of antique dealer Alain Plumey and French teacher Jo Khalifa. Founded in 1997, the museum is situated in the Pigalle district of Paris, at 72 Boulevard de Clichy...

 in Pigalle.

See also Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey

Edward St. John Gorey was an American writer and artist noted for his macabre illustrated books.-Early life:...

's The Curious Sofa

The Curious Sofa

The Curious Sofa is a classic 1961 book by Edward Gorey, published under the pen name Ogdred Weary . The book is a "pornographic illustrated story about furniture"...

, (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.