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Hello All, I have been searching for a good stitching horse to use and ran across this one yesterday at an antique show. It is very sturdy and appears to have been well used in the trade. It has an adjustable seat that can be swung out to the side. The big screws under the seat are made of wood and the big nut holding the seat on is also wood. Everything is in tact except that the leather strap is broken and a few tacks are missing here and there. It looks like the seat was recovered a couple of times as there are what I think are the original tacks as well as some newer brass tacks on the remaining seat cover. The jaws are of the straight variety and have what I think are brass plates on them, so I am assuming that this is a harness maker's bench. I was told that this was probably from the 1850's or so, but have no idea. I just thought it was a very cool looking piece and that it was in good enough condition to use. I want to clean and preserve the wood and metal parts, replace the broken leather strap and get it into working order. However, I would like to learn what I have before I touch it just in case it might be valuable. I would hate to ruin a nice piece of history. I am just starting to research to see what I can find out about it and wanted to ask for your help. Any ideas what I have? Are there any good resources; books, websites, etc. that I should be looking at?