Description
The geometrical solids housed in this smart cabinet are intended to make geometry easier for the student. They serve the same purpose as diagrams in a textbook, but with the advantage of being three-dimensional. While diagrams can be very confusing, being able to actually handle an object lets you learn more readily.

During the eighteenth century the standard textbook for learning geometry was Euclid’s Elements of Geometry. Amazingly, this had been the main text since Euclid first compiled it in the 3rd century BC It is made up of a series of thirteen books, with the eleventh and twelfth of these dealing with ‘solid geometry’. It is for helping to understand the diagrams in these books that three-dimensional models come in useful.

Being such an elaborate set of solids, we can guess that these models would have been used in private tuition. However, we must also bear in mind their value as a display piece. Mathematics in the eighteenth century was a fashionable activity, something that showed one’s good taste. The educational and aesthetic functions are not entirely separate though. Being an attractive set, the models would have made learning more pleasurable.

Earlier sets of geometrical solids were often made to illustrate the ‘Platonic solids’ – the cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron. These were often regarded as having mystical significance. The astronomer Kepler used their properties as a basis for astronomical and astrological theories. Later sets of solids were often used for learning about the different crystals found in minerals.