Thanks for the suggestions. John, the Mass Music guys had guitars and ukes with them this year but no mandos that I saw. They did have 3 Martins from the 1930s with them, including a 12 fret slot head dread that I seriously coveted. Alas, it was far out of my price range.

I talked electronically about interior labels with some harp guitar guys (Bohmann was also built harp guitars). The first label anyone had seen was the one with pictures of the 1889 medals, like the one in my mando. The next one had pictures of the additional medals through 1895. The newest label had all of the medals 1889 through 1895 plus one from 1899. If we assume that Bohmann didn't start using the "1895" labels until 1896 that would put the date for my mando between 1891 (the patent date) and 1896 (the assumed date of the label change).

I also saw a couple references that said that Bohmann was the first American manufacturer of mandolins, follow a couple years later by Lyon and Healy. Also got a line on a guy who is reputed to know everything about Bohmann's instruments and I am trying to contact him.