By Wendy Moonan Published: May 21, 2004  Furniture, Too, Can Be
Noble  Louis XIV, the Sun King, seldom gets enough credit for
his patronage of French artists and craftsmen. Proclaimed king
of France at age 5, he was in his 20's in 1662 when he
established his country's first organization devoted to
producing French objects of art, the Manufacture Royale des
Meubles de la Couronne.  The most important early furnishings
were by André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732), the first great French
designer of cabinetry and gilt bronzes. Louis XIV named Boulle
the official cabinetmaker, sculptor and bronze worker to the
crown and gave him space for workshops at the Louvre in 1672.
There, Boulle invented the intricate marquetry of tortoiseshell
and brass now called boulle marquetry. (Buyers beware: boulle
marquetry was revived in the 1770's and again in the 19th
century.)  An outstanding Boulle commode is the star lot this
morning in Sotheby's sale of the Greenberg Collection, 34 pieces
of fine French furniture assembled durin