
Second throne: The special chair made for the playboy Prince Bertie, the future Edward VII, to take his weight during lovemaking in a Parisian bordello
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Among the bordellos of Victorian Paris, Le Chabanais was the most exquisite, and the most lavish. Over the years this ‘maison de tolerance’ — the word ‘brothel’ was considered too tawdry — saw visitors as illustrious as Humphrey Bogart, Mae West and Cary Grant.