The 'real' Peter Rabbit was a Belgian buck rabbit called Peter Piper that was, as wrote Potter later, 'bought at a very tender age, in the Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush, for the exorbitant sum of 4/6'. He was to prove a sound investment. This 'affectionate companion' lent his first name to one of the world's best-loved fictional characters and earned Beatrix Potter enduring international acclaim for the series of 'little books' that bear his name.

Peter Piper was the second rabbit that Potter acquired as a small girl (the first was called Benjamin, himself to become the subject of a story in The Tale of Benjamin Bunny), and a much-loved member of the menagerie that kept her amused in what was a rather lonely childhood. Potter wrote later in a letter to a child that 'Peter used to lie before the fire on the heart rug like a cat. He was clever at learning tricks, he used to jump through a hoop, and ring a bell, and play the tambourine.' As a little girl, Potter took Peter Piper on trips out of the house, keeping him in line with a small lead.

Potter spent a lot of time studying and drawing Peter Piper. He was rather fat, 'good at tricks' and 'very naughty' - the perfect model for a story about a mischievous and greedy little rabbit. Potter first composed her story of Peter Rabbit in 1893 in the form of a picture-letter to Noel Moore, the five-year-old son of her friend and former governess, Annie Moore. He was recovering from a bout of scarlet fever. Potter begins: 'I don't know what to write to you, so I shall tell you story about four little rabbits, whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter'.