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 PENSIONER was left with a fractured jaw after being beaten and robbed outside his home in Birmingham last weekend .
A mother-of-three who weighed almost 16st has revealed how she lost 7 .
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A British photographer has captured the beauty of London in a stunning series of landscapes shots .
MEET the underwater British seal who is so friendly he loves to grapple divers like a friendly puppy dog .
MAKING himself at home, this little snail perches happily on top of this frog's head .
HOTSPOT MEDIA - LETHAL BIRTHMARK NEARLY SUFFOCATES GIRL: Zoe Mitchell when she was two-weeks-old .
A photographer has travelled the length of the UK capturing lighthouses and their picturesque surroundings .
STRIKING photos capture nature at its most raw and powerful during Earth’s most electrifying event .
Pic By HotSpot Media - PARROT RIDES ON THE TUBE - THIS pretty boy could be forgiven for forgetting his Oyst-aaarrrgh-card .
NEW DELHI, A woman activist of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party crosses a police barricade near the residence of ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi during a protest against the recent rape of a five-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, April 21, 2013 .
HIDING behind its flipper, this little seal comes over a little camera shy .