I love the quilt top, but would definitely machine quilt it. It's waited long enough to be finished and loved, and machine quilting won't hurt it (or you) at all.
I have a quilt that my grandmother made around the 1930's 1940's. She didn't finish it, my mom inherited it and stuck it in a drawer for 30+ years. I inherited it and found a LAQ who let me rent some time on her LA. I no idea what I was doing, but I didn't want it out of my sight and that was the only solution i could come up with. Now that I know what I'm doing, I can see how horribly it is quilted!
However, even with my awful quilting, it looks better done and on a bed than it ever did locked away in a drawer.