She was the 18th century celebrity who made men faint in awe of her beauty by her very presence. But her beauty - and her vanity - led to her demise as the lead-based make-up she insisted on plastering on daily resulted first in the loss of her looks, then deadly blood poisoning. Now the grand 7ft mirror in which Maria Gunning, the former Countess of Coventry, admired her stunning reflection has been auctioned off for more than £300,000. Labelled the first victim of vanity, Maria died aged 27 in 1760 after her love of make-up resulted in her untimely death. The 253-year-old mirror sold well above its estimate even though her condition meant she the society hostess used it for a matter of just months. A glorious George II giltwood overmantel design, it was bought for her by her husband The Sixth Earl of Coventry in 1759, who is said to have been so frustrated by his wife's love of make up that he would chase her around the dinner table with a handkerchief, trying wipe it from her face.
A mum who weighed just 8st 1lb at eight months pregnant has battled her eating disorder to give birth to a healthy baby girl .
An Italian photographer travelled to the highlands of New Guinea where he met an Indonesian tribe untouched by the modern world .
IN a galaxy not so far away lies a magical display of lights that could be the latest image from NASA .
Recovering from a rare form of breast cancer, Deborah Barnett, 43, of Stoke-on-Trent, thought she'd made it through the worst, but she was betrayed by former colleague Sandra Ramsay, of Mow Cop Road, Mow Cop, Stoke-on-Trent .
Made up of 40,000 pieces, putting in over 200 hours of work and blunting endless blades, this is the final result for the world’s largest jigsaw, finally finished on Wednesday .
SITTING on a burning sofa unable to move, one man turns his terrifying dreams into reality .
A woman was left fighting for her life after an eczema wound became infected and caused a deadly flesh-eating bug to ravish a hole in her arm .
A terrifying prankster has given unsuspecting urban explorers the fright of their lives .
Meet the dog-loving woman who spends £20k a year looking after her 30 pet PUGS .
TOWERING 65 metres into the sky, this terrifying accent is a dream for climbers .
WITH the mystical clouds forming a thick blanket and the electrifying lights below, these stunning pictures provide a unique view of the cityscape of Dubai taken from the tallest building in the world .
Beautiful turquoise waves rise and fall in a series of stunning images taken along the coastline of south-eastern Australia .