This is what I get: $ python Python 2.5.4 (r254:67916, Feb 17 2009, 20:16:45) [GCC 4.3.3] on linux2 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> from PyQt4.QtCore import QVariant >>> QVariant({'a': 1}).toMap() {} >>> QVariant({'a': 1}).type() 127 -Christoph