It's hoped a faithful recreation of a 100 year old book will encourage more people to explore Sark.

The Book of Sark was first published in 1908 to showcase William Arthur Toplis's paintings of the island.

A century later, and the original plates have been used to print high quality replicas of the book. Master craftsmen have worked with Toplis's descendants to produce the limited edition volumes.

Fiona Kelly, William Arthur Toplis' Great-Granddaughter, said: "The half tone copper printing plates were given to me by my aunt who was the grand-daughter of William Arthur Toplis and she gave to me the full set when she came to England and since then we have always believed that something could be done with them. We desperately wanted to make use of them in some way."

And now they have. It's taken four years and some of the most specialised craftsmen in the UK but the centenary edition of The Book of Sark has been published.

Publisher Chris Andrews said: "The whole thing about this project is every part of it is unique. The fact of having hundred year old plates that were still capable of being reproduced is amazing, and then finding someone who could work with them and then finding the printer with the correct technician to work on them is amazing."

Typesetting and printing the text and using the old plates to reproduce the colour prints has been an intensive labour of love for the craftsmen.

Typesetter Stan Lane is thought to be the one remaining person in the UK capable of doing the work. He said: "It's as good as anyone could possibly do. There's some beautiful work there. I don't think you could improve on any aspect of the production. Everyone's really pulled the stops out."

The vellum or cloth bound books are strictly limited edition, so Sark was first on the list to buy one. Paid for by a subscription from islanders - many people have a stake in this slice of Sark history. The publishers hope they'll be as happy with it as they imagine the artist himself would have been.

The old and new copies of the prints are on display in the newly opened Toplis Room at Sark's Island Hall so everyone's welcome to see which they prefer.