I don't do "grail", but rather do like to be pleasantly surprised by stuff I find in boxes at swap meets.
The most elegant levers I've come across so far are these. Really nicely made, and very good-looking IMO (but require pretty big hands, as you can see
here):
I get along quite well with most levers. My hands are big enough for MAFAC levers, and I love their brakes, so those are on many of my older bikes. The combination of MAFAC brakes with Universal levers is probably even better though. Favored by many racers in my area BITD.
