Very often a table with drop leaves would have been a sewing table....but probably would have had a bin or a large drawer to keep the mending in.
I have a small walnut end table with drop leaves; I just call it an end table.

Lindac this is way taller than an end table. Atleast a foot or a little more. More

I have a 2 drawer table like yours, was sold to me as a "work table"

nyboy thanks for the reply. I was talking with a friend at the time and she looked at the photo and says it's a dessert table. The drop leafs available if you have numerous to sit out on it. Drawers so you could keep napkins, dessert plates and silverware handy. So I can see someone maybe calling it a work table also.

How tall is it?

It's 32 inches tall and 20 inches wide with the drop leafs down.

That's end table height...In the 1870's chairs weren't close to the floor and end tables and night stands were taller. I have 3 old tables that are that tall, and a couple more than are 29 inches tall.
It's not a dessert table, that would have been on wheels.
I believe it was designed as a work table and used next to a chair.
Are the dove tails hand done?
Linda C

Lindac I have no idea what a dovetail is? Looking at the photo I'm still not sure what it is. I couldn't say for sure what is hand done, although it is a well put together piece, not mass produced and drawers are excellent. Here is a photo to give an idea of size next to the end table.

BTW I said something to my friend about wheels and she said there were stationary ones, like stationary buffets. I was thinking about my teacart. :)

{{gwi:1376655}}

I appreciate all the info and gives me a lot more than I had.

Dove tailing is a way of joining2 pieces of wood....scroll down at the link.
Your table is a style that came about about 1955 or so...often called a cobbler's bench style or a step back table. Old tables really were taller....perhaps it might better be called a side table.
Our ancestors didn't have coffee tables, they had tea tables, they didn't have little low tables at the side of a sofa with a big tall lamp on, they had taller tables with an oil lamp on it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Antique furniture