diff --git a/psycopg/typecast_binary.c b/psycopg/typecast_binary.c
index 62b10829..b145b1b7 100644
--- a/psycopg/typecast_binary.c
+++ b/psycopg/typecast_binary.c
@@ -133,7 +133,8 @@ static char *psycopg_parse_hex(
 static char *psycopg_parse_escape(
         const char *bufin, Py_ssize_t sizein, Py_ssize_t *sizeout);
 
-static PyObject *
+/* The function is not static and not hidden as we use ctypes to test it. */
+PyObject *
 typecast_BINARY_cast(const char *s, Py_ssize_t l, PyObject *curs)
 {
     chunkObject *chunk = NULL;
diff --git a/tests/types_basic.py b/tests/types_basic.py
index 83d526ff..0eb6ac48 100755
--- a/tests/types_basic.py
+++ b/tests/types_basic.py
@@ -327,6 +327,92 @@ class AdaptSubclassTest(unittest.TestCase):
            del psycopg2.extensions.adapters[A, psycopg2.extensions.ISQLQuote]
 
 
+class ByteaParserTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    """Unit test for our bytea format parser."""
+    def setUp(self):
+        try:
+            self._cast = self._import_cast()
+        except Exception, e:
+            return self.skipTest("can't test bytea parser: %s - %s"
+                % (e.__class__.__name__, e))
+
+    def _import_cast(self):
+        """Use ctypes to access the C function.
+
+        Raise any sort of error: we just support this where ctypes works as
+        expected.
+        """
+        import ctypes
+        lib = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary(psycopg2._psycopg.__file__)
+        cast = lib.typecast_BINARY_cast
+        cast.argtypes = [ctypes.c_char_p, ctypes.c_size_t, ctypes.py_object]
+        cast.restype = ctypes.py_object
+        return cast
+
+    def cast(self, buffer):
+        """Cast a buffer from the output format"""
+        l = buffer and len(buffer) or 0
+        rv = self._cast(buffer, l, None)
+
+        if rv is None:
+            return None
+
+        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+            return str(rv)
+        else:
+            return rv.tobytes()
+
+    def test_null(self):
+        rv = self.cast(None)
+        self.assertEqual(rv, None)
+
+    def test_blank(self):
+        rv = self.cast(b(''))
+        self.assertEqual(rv, b(''))
+
+    def test_blank_hex(self):
+        # Reported as problematic in ticket #48
+        rv = self.cast(b('\\x'))
+        self.assertEqual(rv, b(''))
+
+    def test_full_hex(self, upper=False):
+        buf = ''.join(("%02x" % i) for i in range(256))
+        if upper: buf = buf.upper()
+        buf = '\\x' + buf
+        rv = self.cast(b(buf))
+        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+            self.assertEqual(rv, ''.join(map(chr, range(256))))
+        else:
+            self.assertEqual(rv, bytes(range(256)))
+
+    def test_full_hex_upper(self):
+        return self.test_full_hex(upper=True)
+
+    def test_full_escaped_octal(self):
+        buf = ''.join(("\\%03o" % i) for i in range(256))
+        rv = self.cast(b(buf))
+        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+            self.assertEqual(rv, ''.join(map(chr, range(256))))
+        else:
+            self.assertEqual(rv, bytes(range(256)))
+
+    def test_escaped_mixed(self):
+        import string
+        buf = ''.join(("\\%03o" % i) for i in range(32))
+        buf += string.ascii_letters
+        buf += ''.join('\\' + c for c in string.ascii_letters)
+        buf += '\\\\'
+        rv = self.cast(b(buf))
+        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+            tgt = ''.join(map(chr, range(32))) \
+                + string.ascii_letters * 2 + '\\'
+        else:
+            tgt = bytes(range(32)) + \
+                (string.ascii_letters * 2 + '\\').encode('ascii')
+
+        self.assertEqual(rv, tgt)
+
+
 def test_suite():
     return unittest.TestLoader().loadTestsFromName(__name__)