Disclaimer: wall of text from non native speaker incoming
Hi ya'all! First of all pls excuse any mistakes, I am not an english speaker and I might mess up some vocabulary when it comes to sewing machines.
Here's the story, about 15 years ago I saved the machine from my granny's attic before her house got torn down. When I discovered it on the attic I was like "this looks cute and old, I'mma carry it out and take it home" - after that the machine stood in our garage for another 15 years until I rediscovered it recently during our move. Initially the plan was to remove the machine, get a new wooden top, repaint the metal and use it as a nice decorative little table in the house. Now my fiance's granddad came around and I told him what I'd like him to do with the treadle, and he straight out refused to "destroy" it before I did some research on the machine. I tried to do research some years ago but to no avail, I figured it was worth something like one of those Singer's around 30 bucks and I thought well, can as well make a table out of it.
So now that I did proper research I found out the following:
Seems to be an early Howe Stockwell Model A from 1868-1869?
It still has needle, bobbins and shuttle?
the condition is probably horrible.
I researched the internet to find out what it is worth, but I could not find any proper information. As far as I can tell, it seems to be a rather rare item even in this condition.
Now here's where I could use your help:
I am from Austria, afaik the machines were produced in the USA and UK. Is it somewhat uncommon to find such a piece in Austria?
Worth: I know it's "worth what someone is willing to pay for it". I still want to do my decoration table but if you cry out "stop! This is a very rare piece don't destroy it" I might not do the table. Do you think museums would be interested, can you put a monetary value on it? What should I do next?
Can you give me any more information about it, where it came from, how it came to Austria. I researched what's on the "sliders" but couldn't find any information. Also this 18 M.O. 69 in the corner of the table, what does that one mean?
I will attach some of the pictures here, but I also did an imgur album with more pictures if you want to check it out here:
Photo album
Thank you all for your help, greetings from Austria