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.
COURAGEOUS CLIMBERS scale frozen waterfalls in Canada, as the ice threatens to collapse beneath them .
A woman has taken her house back in time - by spending £10,000 to transform it into her Victorian dream home .
THESE are the Disney Princesses you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley .
SOME OF the sea’s most terrifying creatures show their softer side as they join a group of diners for lunch .
FROM MRS Patmore to Lady Sybil, these barking mad illustrations show the WOOF-er side of some of our most loved Downton characters .
An obese woman has lost 9st after an addiction to junk food left her £1 .
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 .
The gunslingers are long gone and tumbleweeds have taken over at this abandoned American Wild West Theme Park in Cornwall .
SAT ON top of a Brazilian turtle’s head, this little ladybird looks content as he studies his environment from a new height .
Beautiful turquoise waves rise and fall in a series of stunning images taken along the coastline of south-eastern Australia .
The rock restaurant, located in Zanzibar – THIS unique restaurant really does boast breath-taking views - as it is perched on a rock in the middle of the sea .