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Up for bid is the following:

One ( 1 ) MINT condition

Dept 56

The Times Tower

Special Edition Gift Set

# 56.55510

Includes:

The "The Times Tower " Porcelain Lighted Building

The New Year's Kiss Porcelain Accessory

One small container of confetti

Includes additional snap-on numbers for celebrations beyond 2000.

( Original owner only used this for 2000, additional year numbers have never

been used and are 'still' sealed. )

With the push of a button, a sparkling Ball atop "The Times Tower" illuminates and begins its descent. ( I tested this movement and switch, they both work fine ! )

Originally retailed for $185.00 in 1999.

The following is taken from the accompanying booklet...

Let the confetti fly ! Don a paper party hat and blow your noisemaker because a resolution to celebrate the New Year with "The Times Tower" by Department 56 may be the easiest one of all to keep.

History:

What first began as farmland and rolling fields, named the Longacres after its London equivalent, was eventually transformed from the center of the harness trade to the Crossroads of the World.

In 1903, publisher Adolph Ochs selected this area as the new home for the New York Times. The plans of architects Eidlitz and MacKenzie included a tower that soared 375 into the air to create new York 's second tallest building. Modeled after Giotto's Campanile, in Florence , the steel framework of Times Tower was encased in limestone and cream-colored brick and embellished with carved limestone gingerbread.

The Celebration:

Long before construction was completed in 1905, August Belmont, the head of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, started a campaign to name the subway stop below the tower as well as the surrounding area. His letters prompted a resolution to the Commission of Streets, Highways, and Sewers asking that the triangle of land occupied by Times Tower be know as Times Square . On April 19, 1904, Mayor George McClellan signed the resolution making official the name that would soon be known worldwide. Times Square has been the center of attention ever since the owners of Times Tower first held a rooftop celebration 94 years ago and usd in the new Year with fireworks.

On January 1, 1905, the New York Times headline proclaimed:

BIG NEW YEAR FETE AT TIMES SQUARE

The paper described the event on its front page: "From base to dome the giant structure was alight - a torch to usher in the newborn, a funeral pyre for the old, which pierced the very heavens. Broadway had been waiting for the signal.

The instant the first flash on the Times Tower showed, a great shout went up, and an ear-splitting blast was sounded from the horns of the myriad of merrymakers on the street below."

Thus a New York City tradition began and continues to this day. The fireworks were eventually banned by City ordinance and replaced in 1907 with an illuminated globe that has become a universal symbol for the New Year.

The aluminum Ball was covered with 12,000 large rhinestones, measured six feet in diameter, and weighed more than 500 pounds. Lit by 180 halogen lamps, 144 strobe lights, and a 10,000 Watt internal xenon lamp, each New Year's Eve until 1999, the Ball descended on a 77-foot flagpole at 11:59 p.m., and reached its destination at precisely midnight when the numbers of the New would light.

The New Millennium:

To welcome the new millennium and to light the way to the year 2000 is a new Ball created in Ireland by more than 100 Waterford Crystal artisans, designers, and engineers.

Waterford Crystal aptly named its creation Star of Hope. Six feet in diameter and weighing almost 800 pounds, the sp contains over 500 triangular pieces of crystal, each containing a central circle, portraying the earth, and a seven-pointed star, representing the seven continents. Th...

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