Since about that time, or a little earlier, there has been a flow of paintings entering the market, and now forming parts of otherwise reputable collections, which can only be described as pastiches, detectable as inauthentic when compared with works that have solid 18th century provenance. In spite of the progressive adulteration of the Monamy oeuvre, and before the 20th century, it was nevertheless still possible for Julian Marshall to quote, in his "Catalogue of Engraved National Portraits" in the South Kensington National Art Library, 1895, that after completing his apprenticeship, Monamy had been "reckoned the finest painter of shipping in England." A tendency of later critics and art historians is to suppose that Monamy experienced little competition as a marine painter, following the death of the Younger van de Velde in 1707. The truth, however, is that there were several native rivals in the marine genre, including Isaac Sailmaker (after 70 years in England he can be counted a virtual Englishman); Francis Place; the Vale brothers, Humphrey and Robert; Thomas Baston; J.Boon; Robert Woodcock; and later J.Cook; Samuel Scott; Thomas Mellish; Thomas Allen; and others active during Monamy's final two decades. As an indication of the esteem in which Monamy was held by a significant group of his fellow-Londoners, both as a person and as a practitioner of his craft, the following anonymous obituary, from "The London Gazetteer" of 9 February 1749, says:  "Yesterday Evening was buried at St. Margaret's Westminster, Mr.Peter Monamy, greatly eminent for his Skill in Painting Sea Pieces; in which Art, as he was not equall'd by any of his , neither was he excell'd by many of the Ancients; but his Name and Character are too well known and establish'd among the Curious to need any artful Commendation to set them in greater Light to advance his Merit; neither can the warmest Praise add to his Fame when dead, who, in his Life, was the greatest Enemy to Adulation; and tho' some Notice is due to the Memory of so celebrated an Artist in Painting, yet his own Performances, which are extant in the World, will prove his most lasting Monument."