This weekend, the world's largest sex show, Erotica, will be staged at London's Olympia (www.erotica-uk.com), displaying a huge variety of sex aids.

But naughty toys are nothing new – our ancestors were far from prudish.

Here, with the help of three experts – sexologist Tracey Cox, the owner of posh sex emporium Coco De Mer, Sam Roddick and the editor of saucy women's magazine Scarlet, Sarah Hedley – we look back on more than 2,000 years of sex toys.

Circa 350BC: Olive oil was first used as a lubricant.

Cox (www.traceycox.com) says it's a lot better than baby oil which 'has a nasty habit of eating rubber and making condoms as effective as cling film'.

500BC: In Greece, priests used dildos in rituals to deflower virgins.

They believed the hymen was dangerous to mere mortals and the act of breaking one would result in death.

Looking good
Circa 655: Mirrors were introduced as sexual accessories.

Lady Wu Chao, the wife of Chinese emperor Tai Tsung, had sheets of reflecting glass placed around their bed.

Hedley says this shows 'the myth that women aren't visually stimulated in the same way as men is nonsense'.

When courtiers insinuated mirrors were a bad omen, the emperor had them removed but Wu Chao reinstalled them after his death to use with her lovers.

Circa 1600: The modern penis ring and clitoral stimulator were invented in China.

Circa 1850: A rubber dildo was introduced.

1869: Dr George Taylor developed the first vibrator.

The steam-powered apparatus was used to treat 'female hysteria'.

The supposed symptoms were anxiety, irritability, sexual fantasies, pelvic heaviness and excessive vaginal lubrication – in other words, sexual arousal.

The patients were 'treated' with the vibrator until they experienced relief through 'paroxysm' (orgasm). 'Isn't it odd,' says Hedley. 'In effect, doctors were turned into sex workers.'

1899: America's first ad for a battery vibrator appeared in McClure's magazine.

It was advertised as a cure for headaches, wrinkles and nerve pain.

Cox says that 'despite supposed sexual liberation, they were still passing them off as back massagers with handy attachments for “those sensitive areas”'.

Vibrators were also advertised in needlecraft and home magazines.

Hedley says the ambiguity of these adverts was laughable. 'I'd love to see them back in magazines – there's a certain retro chic to them.'

1911: The plug-in vibrator was the fifth household appliance to be electrified. 'It's good to see we had our priorities right even then,' says Cox. 'The vibrator is the best invention since penicillin and mascara.'

1927: KY Jelly was introduced, initially used by physicians to improve women's comfort during pelvic exams.

1930: Development of latex rubber. It was lighter and softer than normal rubber and revolutionised contraception, making way for the production of better condoms and diaphragms.

1952: The American Medical Association declared hysteria was not really an ailment.

Since the vibrator would no longer be used as a medical device, it had to be acknowledged for its real purpose.

1953: Debut of Playboy magazine. Although it was attacked as pornography, Hedley says the early issues were extremely tame.

'Compared with today's Nuts and Zoo, early Playboy looks like an issue of Good Housekeeping.'

Swinging 60s
1961: The birth control pill became available on the NHS.

1981: Ann Summers, hailed as the company that brought sex aids to suburbia, launched its first party plans.

1998: The Rabbit vibrator made an appearance on HBO's Sex And The City series. After the episode aired, sales skyrocketed.

2001: Posh sex shop Coco De Mer opened in London's Covent Garden. Roddick says her shop unveils ancient attitudes towards sex: 'It used to be far more romantic and fantastical – unlike today's view of sex, which is about function rather than a theatrical performance.'

2004: Scarlet magazine (www.scarletmagazine.co.uk) launches. Intended as a sexy lifestyle publication for women, including information on topical issues such as women's rights, it was often viewed as an adult magazine.

Hedley says this view was wrong. 'But at last, society seems to accept that women are interested in sex and it doesn't make them deviant in any way.'

2005: Supermarkets started selling sex toys such as penis rings, lubricants – and the Supersex Finger Tingler.