The collection of hunting weapons in the Gatchina Palace and Estate Museum contains a flintlock rifle made in the 1740s in the Rococo style. Weapons of that period were true works of art demonstrating a wonderful balance between usability and aesthetics. The main centres of handmade firearms manufacturing were Italy and Germany and since the middle of the 17th century — France. They set the fashion for shapes and decorations of weapons. The Rococo style which was predominant in Europe in the second half of the 18th century also influenced the development of hand-held firearms both in Europe and in Russia. The barrel of the flintlock rifle is made of forged iron and is octagonal in section. It is decorated in the chasing technique: at the breech end there is an image of a hunter on horseback, while the tang of the breech and the barrel surface by the breech face and around the front sight are covered with rocaille patterns. At the breech end in front of the touch hole there is an engraved inscription: ‘Maugre a Paris’. The same technique was used to decorate silver parts of the furniture — a butt plate, a trigger guard, a lock bridle and ramrod pipes. The stock of the rifle is made of nut wood. It is inlaid with gilded bronze inserts depicting romantic ruins and fragments of rocaille patterns as well as with silver wire in the form of curls. The stock is also decorated with tiny nails with golden heads in the form of flowers. The silver patch box lid is decorated with an image of a chariot with a driver against a rural landscape. The image is created using the chasing technique well known since the Middle Ages.

All the parts of the furniture are decorated with various images. On the outer side of the butt plate there are two hunters, one of whom is loading his rifle, while on the inside of the butt plate there is a killed deer in the forest and a rocaille pattern. On the trigger guard there is a huntress with a rifle and a dog as well as rocaille motifs. On the lock bridle there is a hunter having a rest and several killed deer, while on a plate on the stock wrist there are two grazing deer. It may seem impossible that so richly decorated rifle was ever used for its intended purpose. However, there are traces of flint strikes on the frizzen which indicate that the rifle was indeed used for shooting.