Models illustrating a classification of plane cubic curves (Q2326247)

Around the second half of the nineteenth century, the usage of concrete geometrical models for educational purposes became quite popular in European universities, especially in Germany. The models were available through the German manufacture by Brill and Schilling. The catalog of Schilling from 1911 describes ``almost four hundred models and devices and contains the name of the models and a short mathematical explanation''. The aim of the paper under review is to provide insight on the early history of classification of plane cubic curves and to discuss how some of Schilling's models can illustrate different classifications. In particular, the authors recall the classifications due to Newton, Möbius, Breijer and Wiener.