It was patented on 11 July 1891, by Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria and Count Georg von Dormus [de].

Various modifications were made with approximately twenty prototypes before thirty pistols of a workable design were submitted for Austrian military trials in 1896.

This 8 mm delayed blowback pistol loads through the top and has a hinged magazine door on the butt.

The production delay between patent and military trials allowed comparisons with other self-loading pistols, and the Salvator Dormus was considered inferior to its competition.

[2] The Bundeswehr Museum of German Defense Technology in Koblenz has one of these specimens in its collection.