John Takes the Plunge

Purchased for $100: one Harmonium by Philip J. Trayser, Stuttgart, Germany.  Serial no. 219 (as stamped on the board running along the back of the action just under the stop pulls), which possibly places it between 1847 (the firm's founding) and 1850, because, per the ROS database, a physharmonika with serial number 735 dates from "1850±" -- but did Trayser use the same serial number series for physharmonikas as he did for harmoniums?  Much research needed here.

Provenance: Who knows?  Most recently it was housed for 15 years in a shed next to an in-ground swimming pool in the back yard of the previous owner's house.  The board right behind the keys is originally inscribed (bass side) "Extra for" (treble side) "Franz Altstatt."  Although the inscription is in English, I wonder if Trayser was using the German sense of the word "extra" which would mean "especially", so I'm thinking the inscription means "especially [made] for Franz Altstatt."  I have searched familysearch.com for people with that name in the mid-19th century and have found no one.

Condition: feeder bellows leather mostly gone; not sure I have all wooden parts of the feeder bellows. The reservoir is intact but of course without feeder bellows, there's currently no winding at all.  The rest of the instrument appears to be intact, but filthy, with many of the iron parts badly rusted.  The keyboard is especially filthy.  The white keys are ivory.  The labels on the stop pulls must have been replaced, as some make no sense. The flat-top case is dirty but does not need refinishing (and should I even think about refinishing an antique??)  The interior spaces of the instrument were full of shredded pieces of one of those foam swimming pool "noodles," which suggests that critters were living inside; also found lots of nut shells, so ... squirrels?  The critters did not get into the action, so the key action is intact and the reeds look shiny and new:

The challenge: to return it to playing condition and to clean and restore it as much as possible without compromising it as an antique.

The real challenge: I have NO experience or expertise!

Why?  I am a professional organist with a doctorate in organ from the Eastman School of Music.  In the past 10 years or so, the Eastman organ department has gone on a shopping spree, acquiring many new and notable instruments.  These are mostly pipe organs, but at a conference that I attended there about 7 years ago, an appeal was made for a donor to fund the purchase of a Mustel harmonium.  The organ department was seeking to purchase this instrument, because these instruments were taken very seriously by organists and organ composers of the 19th century, and the exposure to such instruments and their literature would be an important component of the education that the Eastman organ department wished to impart to its students.  At the time, I knew I could donate the instrument if I could do it via a pledge over time.  I offered; the school accepted.  Ultimately because of cost overruns, a second donor was recruited.  But finally, in 2008, the school acquired a Mustel harmonium d'art.  I was thrilled to be at the inaugural presentation and concert, played by Joris Verdin.  I was astonished at the beauty of the instrument.  When my Trayser appeared on Craigslist for $100, how could I resist?