Joyce, I'm very happy for your getting the machine. Your machine looks a lot like my Gritzner hand crank machine that I got last month. They were modeled after the Singer 12. Does yours have the tension on the front of the machine? Do you have a shuttle and shuttle bobbin with it? The shuttle bobbin winder looks like mine does, rather than the pictures of the Singer 12's that I have seen. Don't know about the top though. Mine is in a wooden base and has the top to match. It looks like yours was in a cabinet of some kind with the hinges on the back side of the machine. I'm guessing that yours was a treadle machine. It doesn't have a hand crank as far as I can see. I'm thinking that the metal rectangle with all the numbers is something about what needle to use with what weight thread, but could be wrong. I am unable to find much about mine either. Maybe if I spoke German and could go on some German sites, I could find out more about my machine. I'm thinking mine is from the late 1800's to early 1900's, maybe 1890 from what I saw of one on the net that they dated as 1890. But then too, I could be wrong... I hope you can get a lot of enjoyment out of your machine. Mine has the cutest little 'tick, tick, tick' sound when I hand crank it. AND it has a great stitch!!!