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