The lens was real, and so was the photograph it made, for a contact print. What you see in the photo is a problem with the early emulsions (and of digital today), is that of what happens with bright objects when the emulsion has a limited range. The lens was brightly polished brass, so in the photo it looks really weird. It's like when a current digital sensor gets that magenta shadow around bright chrome. The only thing they could have done would have been an early version of HDR: expose for the people, and then make another exposure for the lens, and then put the two together in the darkroom.
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