A lowboy is a small table

Table (furniture)

A table is a form of furniture with a flat and satisfactory horizontal upper surface used to support objects of interest, for storage, show, and/or manipulation...

 with one or two rows of drawers, so called in contradistinction to the tallboy

Tallboy (furniture)

A tallboy is a piece of furniture incorporating a double chest of drawers and a wardrobe on top. A highboy is similar but consists of both upper and lower having drawers, many of which may not be doubled, and some of which were tripled...

 or highboy chest of drawers. Both were favourite pieces of the 18th century, both in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

; the lowboy was most frequently used as a dressing-table (and called a dressing-table in Britain), but sometimes as a side-table. It is usually made of oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

, walnut

Walnut

Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...

 or mahogany

Mahogany

The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored hardwood. It is a native American word originally used for the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....

, with the drawerfronts mounted with brass pulls and escutcheons

Escutcheon (furniture)

An escutcheon is a general term for a decorative plate used to conceal a functioning, non-architectural item. Escutcheons are most often used in conjunction with mechanical, electrical, and plumbing components and fixtures where a pipe, tube, or conduit passes through a wall [or other material]...

. The more elegant examples in the Queen Anne, early Georgian, and Chippendale

Thomas Chippendale

Thomas Chippendale was a London cabinet-maker and furniture designer in the mid-Georgian, English Rococo, and Neoclassical styles. In 1754 he published a book of his designs, titled The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director...

 styles often have cabriole leg

Cabriole leg

A cabriole leg is one of four vertical supports of a piece of furniture shaped in two curves; the upper arc is convex, while lower is concave; the upper curve always bows outward, while the lower curve bows inward. The axes of the two curves must lie within the same plane...

s, carved knees, and slipper or claw-and-ball feet. The fronts of some examples also are sculpted with the scallop-shell motif beneath the centre drawer.

A vanity is a form of lowboy usually equipped with a mirror, used for applying makeup or other fashion.