Vermont artist claims national retailer Anthropologie stole his mug design

Jeremy Ayers has been making pottery pieces by hand since he was 18 years old.”It’s kind of a culmination of time and love and energy,” he said. “It’s the reason why slow design, or handmade, is so important.”He’s created a distinctive style over the years at his Waterbury studio, where he runs his business Jeremy Ayers Pottery.Some of his best-selling pieces are accordion-shaped painted mugs and vases. “My work is definitely about ceramics and noticing ceramics,” Ayers said.His ceramics are certainly getting noticed.This week, he said one of his Instagram followers saw a nearly identical copy of one of his mugs in a popular home style magazine.”She direct messaged me and said, ‘This looks a lot like your mug what do you think?’ I saw it and I knew they had seen my work immediately,” Ayers said.The mugs in question were being sold by national retailer Anthropologie.Ayers said he believes the design had clear similarities to his work.”That motif isn’t an idea that I did once and then dumped and moved on from. It’s kind of a benchmark design for me,” he said.He posted about it on his social media channels and now the “Josephine Mug,” as it was called on Anthropologie’s website, is no longer for sale.This isn’t the first time the company has been accused of doing this.Australian ceramist Tara Burke raised concerns on her social media platforms that the company copied her work in 2018.She said Anthropologie stopped selling those products shortly after.Ayers said he is frustrated that he’s in a similar situation three years later.”There’s got to be a reckoning for businesses like this who feel they can just do this over and over again, because for them it’s a quick dust up and then they’re back to business. But what I really want them to know is that I’m a real person. I spend my whole week making pottery, my whole year,” Ayers said.Ayers said Anthropologie sent him the following statement: “We’ve recently been made aware of your post about our Josephine mug design and wanted to reach out. We respect and appreciate artisans such as yourself and understand you must be protective of your work, so immediately upon seeing your Instagram post on May 11, we closely reviewed both our and your respective designs. While they both feature accordion shapes and stripe patterns, these designs are reflective of a currently popular theme in pottery ware and are sold at other retailers in addition to Anthropologie. While there are a number of differences between these two designs, out of respect for you as an independent designer, we have pulled the Josephine mug from our inventory and it is no longer available for purchase.We wish you the best for your business.”NBC5 News reached out to Anthropologie several times for comment but has not heard back.Despite the mugs being pulled, Ayers said he is still planning on speaking with an attorney about his intellectual property rights.He said he’s had a great sales week because of this incident.His message to customers is simple: Support local artists.”It’s all about small batches and slow design,” Ayers said.He said buying from small businesses almost always has a much bigger impact. Click here to view the Jeremy Ayers Pottery online store.