Focus on Canadian Historical Dinner Service and explore the Reception.
In July 1897 the service was put on display in Toronto.
It was then exhibited in Montreal and Quebec City.
The finished product was well received.
It was called "a most valuable and interesting work on a large scale, accomplished by the most representative talent in the Dominion ... it is hoped that it will be accepted by the government and placed where it may be seen and studied and preserved to mark the first era in ceramics in Canada."
However, the government was unwilling to pay the asking price of CDN$1,000.Mary Dignam and Lady Edgar, wife of the speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, asked some members of the Senate and House of Commons for help. 
They arranged for the service to be bought at the artists' prices by private subscriptions from members of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada.
On 13 June 1898 the service was formally presented by the members to Lady Aberdeen after the end of the term of her husband as Governor General.
In accepting the gift, Lady Aberdeen made an eloquent speech that ended,
These painted scenes will remind us of many voices from prairie, lake and river which will haunt us in our home, but there will be an undertone of deeper voices which will speak of human love and friendships and these voices will form a choir invisible and will speak to us in the truest music of Canada.
The service was shipped to Scotland and placed on display in Haddo House, home of the Countess and Earl of Aberdeen.
This is still its home, although the house and the ceramic display are now the property of the National Trust for Scotland.
Mary Dignam Haddo House Lady Edgar Toronto National Trust for Scotland Montreal Quebec City Lady Aberdeen