The Chinese raping chair is a bizarre and obscure footnote in the story of human cruelty. It was a collapsible chair with spring loaded bands that automatically restrained the arms and legs of the woman seated in it, and then collapsed into a bed-like form.

Chinese eighteenth and nineteenth century novels mention them frequently as "romantic and comfortable chairs", although it does appear that they were made for the purpose of rape - they were illegal under the Manchu reign.

What was perhaps the last surviving example was burned by peasants in 1949 after being discovered in a mansion in Szechuan province.

Reference

The Illustrated Book of Sexual Records - G.L. Simons