I also have tuned an old (1857) Bluthner 7'6" grand. . . for many years now. Somebody restrung it and tuned it to A=440 before I started servicing it, so I didn't have the worries about breaking something. Fortunately they didn't butcher anything, either.
It was found in a basement in Vienna, shipped to an antique importer in San Francisco, then somewhere else, I believe, before ending up in Denver, where it's been for 30 years now, in the library of a mansion.
It's straight-strung, with no cast-iron plate -- just 5 or 6 metal struts running straight back from the pinblock.
I put new hammers on it when I was first starting out in business, and knew nothing about restoring antique instruments, and not much more about installing new hammers. By luck, I purchased a set of hammers that wasn't too heavy. I didn't know from touch weight or anything back then. But they're still on there and it sounds nice.
Miraculously, the late John Bloch of Denver Piano Rebuilders, whom some PTG old-timers may remember, had a handout on regulating the action, which I sorely needed, since it's not a modern Erard-type repetition action.
So, just 'cause it's old doesn't mean it's not serviceable, but with your 1865 upright, yes, it probably needs "some work."
--David Nereson, RPT
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