 "The Sapphire Necklace" was written for the Pyne & Harrison Opera Company.The young Sullivan worked diligently at the four-act opera during 1863 and 1864, and in October 1865 the house journal of publisher Cramer & Co. advertised "A Grand Romantic Opera by A. S. Sullivan" as "ready", by contrast with operas by Balfe and Wallace described merely as "in preparation".However, the 1864–65 Pyne and Harrison season at Covent Garden proved to be the company's last, and so they never produced the opera.