Princess Diana's dresses to be sold at auction

Dresses worn by Britain's Princess Diana are to be auctioned in Canada.

The collection of 14 gowns - which include items worn by the late Princess of Wales during state visits - will be sold during the summer at Toronto's Waddington's auction house.

Some of the outfits will be particularly recognisable, such as the blue silk and velvet dress she wore at the White House in 1985, where she famously danced with actor John Travolta.

It will be the first time in more than a decade that such a large collection of Diana's dresses are to be sold, since these 14 were sold alongside 65 others in Christie's auction house in 1997 - just months before she died in a car crash in Paris.

Waddington's auction house president Duncan McLean told the Vancouver Sun: "Diana's appeal is quite international. These dresses are a great piece of American history. There's still a great interest and great fascination worldwide for western decadence and royalty."

The dresses, which are expected to sell for around $200,000 each, were commissioned by Diana between 1985 and 1994 and include designs by Catherine Walker, Zandra Rhodes and Bruce Oldfield, who is tipped to design Kate Middleton's wedding gown.

Since her death they have been displayed all over the world and spent a decade on loan to the royal ceremonial dress collection at Kensington Palace where she lived.

The collection's current owner Maureen Dunkel said in a statement: "Selling the collection is a poignant and personal event to me. My only hope is that the new owners of the dresses, whoever they may be, enjoy them as I have and in some way use them to assist those in need. After all, that is the reason Princess Diana put them up for sale to begin with."

The auction will begin on June 23.