Many old brass lenses look great but have really bad glass elements. Others have shootable glass but the metal parts look like an artifact from Pompeii.

The early Petzval lenses are a pretty simple formula that is in the public domain.

Is there any source of lens elements in the proper Crown and Flint glass? Even if an element is not the exact profile, it could be possible to get an optician to resurface it to the proper curvature, at lesst for the smaller sizes. It would cost some, but so do shootable, good looking antique lenses.