I don't think I would put food of any kind in it - the lid is wood and must have the tobacco smell. (My dad was a pipe smoker and his humidor was wood and it smelled fantastic long after he stopped smoking.)
My first thought was the crochet hooks too - so maybe the markers/pencils/pens you use. I am forever looking for my pencils in my sewing room. I also have a few other items like a 6 inch ruler that is a 1/4 inch cube shaped that would fit, and I am sure there are other items that given time will work well. If it were mine I would put it in the sewing room and see what gravitates to it. My sister gave me a pretty cotton ball crock for my dresser - but I thought it was pretty and it made its way into my sewing room and it holds my safety pins. But now I am thinking of taking the pins out and putting my clips in since I use them more than the safety pins.

I just looked at the picture with all the scissors in it - that would be wonderful too, especially for all my little scissors that like to play hide and seek in the sewing room.

Thanks for the ideas! He actually quit smoking a pipe before I was born, so there is no longer a tobacco scent, but I do remember playing with his old cob pipe as a kid. :)

I've just started using wonderclips, so it might be a good catchall for that. I might make a divider for the glass bowl, so that I can put safety pins in one sections, clips in another, and see if there is any need for another one. I don't have many buttons right now (I could dig through my mom's tin if I needed some).

If I use it to hold things like scissors, things with "points", I might make a little mat (like a tree skirt) for the bottom so that I don't scratch it up.

My plan in the next few years is to move into a smaller place, and will need to make sure a lot of stuff "has a function" on top of "looking cool". This has given me some ideas for something I definitely don't want to get rid of!

Instead of covering the bottom for scissors what if you made little felt scissor cases to slip the tips into.

Yes this! I think it is lovely and would easily be repurposed. Enjoy!

marking pencils, and pens ...yes, but how about a few dowels to put through the top hole down through spools of thread and above, on the top of the dowel,you could put the bobbins.......just a thought.. Beautiful piece and brings back so many good memories of my dad's table beside his chair.

If you use it for scissors, you might want to cut felt in a matching color or maybe even adhesive cork for the indentations . It would cushion the points of your scissors and also protect the wood.

Oh, this is a really good idea.

If you put scissors or other pointy objects, maybe get some of those adhesive felt pads that you put under chair legs.
It's such cool looking piece with functionalty built in.

What a treasure. You've been given some great ideas.

Beautiful, no ideas but I would just like to look at it and fell it every so often.