Landon Romance|volume=I|page=52|passage=On the one side was a stand of moss roses, on the other a dressing-table, and a glass à la Psyche, over whose surface the wax tapers flung a soft light, worthy of any complexion, even had it rivalled the caliph Vathek’s pages, whose skins “were fair as the enamel of Frangistan.â€
Galsworthy In Chancery|chapter=Soames Entertains the Future|pages=87–88|pageref=88|passage=Going up to the dressing-table he passed his hand over the lilac-coloured pincushion, into which were stuck all kinds of pins; a bowl of pot-pourri exhaled a scent that made his head turn just a little.
Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing|chapter=VIII|passage=“Don’t tell me she caught you bending again?†“Bending is right. I was half-way under the dressing-table. You and your singing,†I said, and I’m not sure I didn’t add the word “Forsooth!â€
1989, Pauline Hunt, Home and Family: Creating the Domestic Sphere Chapter Gender and the Construction of Home Life, Now that the days of handbag-carrying women have largely drawn to a close, houseworkers rarely have a clearly marked-out personal territory – although for some the dressing-table may be a non-transportable handbag equivalent.
