Jamie Simpson/Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

Two volumes of Birds of America by John James Audubon are going on display in Glasgow

An exhibition spotlighting one of the world's most valuable rare books has opened in Glasgow.

Two volumes of Birds of America by John James Audubon are on show to the public at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG), which has owned the art treasures for two centuries.

The college purchased the two first-edition volumes in 1838 for £48, equivalent to the annual wages of a skilled labourer at the time.

Jamie Simpson/Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow

Each page contains the hand-coloured etching of a life-size bird

It is rare for the public to be able to glimpse the book which contains life-size, meticulously hand-coloured images of more than 400 species of birds native to North America in the early 19th Century.

The book, which recently featured as a major plot device in Mackenzie Crook's BBC comedy Small…