A watchmakers' lathe, perhaps? Elegantly styled a way that makes it likely to have been built in the mid 1830s or earlier, the machine carries no marks that hint at its origins. From its appearance, the bed is obviously in cast iron and the headstock, tailstock and holder for the T-rest in bronze - but are the two separate headstock bearings so far apart? Is the left-hand headstock bearing assembly fitted with a neat, flip-up oiler, but the right-hand one a simple plug?
Note the handwheel positioned midway along the tailstock casting - a design also used until the 1950s on some American Craftsman and Dunlap branded wood lathes. An even simpler arrangement was used on the Oliver wood lathe from England--this having a bar fastened to the tailstock spindle and resting against a tapered slot. Moving the lever rotated the spindle while also moving it backwards and forwards through a travel of around one-half inch.