My mother has a dressing table like that, TC.
She always had and we didn't DARE touch it.
We used to sit on her bed whilst she got ready for all those sophisticated-sounding 'cocktail' parties, dinners and soirees in the late 70s and 80s.
SOOOO chic. She'd dab on her Chanel No. 5 or Joy Patou and do her makeup and let us play with it. She'd be sipping something bubbly and smoking - back then, people did stuff like that.
We'd be allowed to open some of her drawers and flounce around in scarves and costume jewellry and then play 'Dynasty' and Mexican soap opera characters with the baby sitters after they'd left.