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.
Here's a collection of art for the DIGIT-AL age as these fascinating illusions of landmarks, places and even a banana are made using just a pair of hands .
An artist has NAILED IT by creating beautiful and perfectly precise artwork using a hammer and 30,000 nails .
TWIN SISTERS from Australia have taken their sisterly bond to the extreme by spending £150,000 to look IDENTICAL .
FROM a HOLLYWOOD actress to the face of an innocent child, these are incredible drawings with an unlikely twist .
The claws come out at meal time as a group of white tailed eagles brawl over road-kill .
WRAPPED up in classy headscarves, these adorable pooches are the picture of sophistication .
TOMORROW (Saturday) marks the 28th anniversary of the nuclear disaster that left the city of Chernobyl devastated .
An adorable orangutan named Pongo celebrates his first birthday at Zoo Atlanta, Georgia, America .
RACING through the mountain range on horseback, the Kazakh people practice their ancient tradition of hunting with golden eagles .
A Canadian woman who is obsessed with all things mythical has had her ears cut and shaped to look like an ELF .
In 2021, Anneka Watkinson, now 37, from Lancashire, met Chris, now 40 .
football club has scored an own goal after it had to embarrassingly rename its stadium in honour of the DEVIL .