Mrs. Cuffs, it's a historically significant revolver. It is not a valuable one, simply because of the way old guns get their value in the collectible gun market. It's an early version of what became the largest single model in handgun history -- a K-frame, .38 Special chambered Smith & Wesson double action revolver.

This design was sooooooo good that it became extremely popular and everyone wanted one. It's also got a massive history as a law enforcement duty gun. It's been estimated that (generally speaking) over six million of this "model" were made in the 120+ years of it's existence.

So when an old gun was made in tremendous supply, there are basically two different ways for it to get a high collector value. First is if it is in tip-top condition, closest to "unused and untouched" is what we're talking about. The second way is if it has verifiable odd, rare but factory original features. A combo of both can make a revolver like this valuable, and when it lacks both, it's just a cool old "shooter grade" relic.

It is almost surely NOT worth being restored, if by worth we mean dollar value. In a case like this, whatever it would cost for a professional restoration would not be recouped by a later sale... because it would no longer be original.