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.
FROM a HOLLYWOOD actress to the face of an innocent child, these are incredible drawings with an unlikely twist .
A young polar bear cub becomes the yogi bear as she stretches off for a morning aerobics session .
ROLLING around in the snow, these young brown bears take a break from their play fight to share a tender hug with one another .
POWERFUL bolts of lightning illuminate the night sky in an incredible autumn storm over the Sardinian coastline .
AT first glance these images could easily be mistaken for photographs, but they are in-fact real life drawings created using nothing but coloured pencils .
THEIR gnarling teeth at the ready, these two baboons fight it out for the last piece of fruit .
With blue waves tumbling over them, these surfers glide underneath a tunnel of water .
CONTRASTING settings reveal some of England’s most beautiful landscapes in all their glory .
An osprey soars through the air at 30 miles per hour before swooping down to catch its prey from a lake .
Beautiful turquoise waves rise and fall in a series of stunning images taken along the coastline of south-eastern Australia .
A prolific drug dealer was caught red-handed in a car filled with amphetamines after he decided to park in a top copper's parking space - as a joke .
Villages on the Somerset Levels have faced weeks of flooding with no respite from the conditions in sight .