I have known Maurizio and Davide Riva for some years now and from our very first meeting a reciprocal understanding developed that went well beyond a simple professional relationship. I am certain that there are moments when people are bound by a shared sensation, even a smell, because the sense of smell brings people together, unites them, cements friendships. In the case of Riva the smell of wood is without doubt the glue of friendship and things are bound to gel when we talk of oak, walnut, cherry, cedar and briccole. What an extraordinary idea to recover the briccole of Venice! The Briccolone is a big briccola made using the original wood of marker posts making out of it a book case. It shows off the beauty of the material (eroded by molluscs, by the water, the salt, by time, by the gondoliers, the tourists, the water rats, the pigeons and all the other forms of life that usually frequent Venice) and keeps its heart pure, healthy, generous, incorruptible and clearly visible beneath its outer crust. I felt I had got it right.
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