The town Lunéville, in the Lorraine region of France is a historic centre for embroidery, home to a technical school of repute, Le Conservatoire des Broderies de Lunéville, and particularly known for its tambour stitchwork.
Point de lunéville is an embroidery technique on cotton (especially tulle), which started with needlepoint lace and evolved into crochet chain stitch–making it a quicker, more precise stitch for delicate embroidered lace motifs. It was developed around 1810 and was particularly appreciated until the mid 19th C for fashion items and ecclesiastical cloths; it remains part of traditional regional artisanry.
It was superseded in popularity by tambour bead embroidery, broderie chainette or broderie de Lunéville, an off-shoot of point de Lunéville invented by Louis Ferry in the late 19thC: the design is marked out and worked from the back side of the fabric, so that the embroiderer stitches facing the wrong side, and pearls, beads or sequins are placed singularly using crochet stitches. In the early 20thC, this stitch helped produce the couture of the age, the ubiquitous beaded flapper dresses, beaded bags, scarves and accessories.