Spanking furniture

A whipping bench. Illustration from the novel Nell in Bridewell.

A specially designed bondage table.

Spanking furniture is furniture specially designed for use in spanking. The spankee is typically restrained to this item of special furniture (see spanking in bondage).

History of spanking furniture[edit]

In the Middle Ages, ingenious craftsmen built all varieties of (usually wooden) objects, such as the stocks, designed to restrain a delinquent for corporal punishment.

For corporal punishment in prisons, reformatories and similar institutions, birching horses and similar devices were built. Schools such as Eton often had a birching block over which students were laid to be chastised.

In some countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, there are special frames (A-frames and caning trestles) used for judicial corporal punishment up to the present day.

The Eton flogging block.
Flogging horse", illustration from Robert Chambers's Book of Days (1832).
Drawing of a birching horse by Louis Malteste.
A "whipping table for young delinquents" in a Scottish prison (1909).
Simple A-frame from Pudu Prison, Malaysia.

Improvised spanking furniture[edit]

A chair used as spanking furniture for the bent-over-object position.

Many pieces of ordinary furniture - chairs, stools, pouffes, piano benches, barstools, tables, desks, couches, sofas, beds, etc - can be improvised to become spanking furniture by allowing the spankee to be positioned in a posture well-suited for spanking. Cushions, bolsters, rolled-up blankets, and pillows are often used to make the position more comfortable for lengthy sessions, as well as to enhance the spanking position by helping to raise the spankee's buttocks to a more spankable position.

Gymnastics apparatus like vaulting-bucks, vaulting horses and vaulting tables can also be used in spanking.

Modern spanking furniture[edit]

Today, spanking furniture is mainly built for BDSM play. The market for such furniture is comparatively small and commercial pieces sell mostly to BDSM studios.

In practice, spanking fans who need an item of spanking furniture, such as a spanking bench or a spreadeagle table, often build these themselves, or find a friend who is skilled in the crafts of carpenting, sewing, leatherworks and/or upholstering.

In BDSM play, bondage is popular to enhance the experience of a spanking. For example, the spankee can be bound to a St. Andrews Cross. Ropes, handcuffs, straps, belts, bondage tape and similar utilities can be used to restrain the spankee's arms and legs and to keep him or her tied in position.