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I'm not Frank Ford, but...
The F4 was Gibson’s top of the line mando until the F-5 came along in 1922. I am not sure when they started making the F4, but I have seen pictures of examples from early 1900’s, and it was discontinued in 1943. The early F4’s had the 3 point body style of that period, with very ornate fingerboards and head stocks. When the F5 was introduced, it got the same body shape as the F4 at the time, which is the familiar scroll and 2 points.
Here are some important differences between the models (there are probably plenty more, you should ask over on Mandolin Cafe, they really know this stuff over there):
The F4 has an oval soundhole, the F5 has f-holes.
The F4’s neck joins the body at the 12th fret, the F5 at the 15th (this changes the bridge’s position on the body).
Elevated fingerboard extension; the F5 fingerboard extension is ends in a “Florida” shape; these days it usually is lowered of omitted because it can interfere with picking in this area, but along with the longer necks this should give access to more notes.
The F4 has a mahogany neck (usually), the F5 has maple.
F4 neck pitch is 4°, F5 is 6° to achieve 16° string break angle (over bridge)
The Loar (see below) period F5 has a “Cremona Brown” sunburst, the F4’s of this period had a reddish sunburst finish.
A good F5 should have that nice “chop” that bluegrass musicians love for chording, and a more direct and cutting lead sound that can be heard above the banjo in a jam. The F4’s sound is usually described as rounder, warmer and so on.
The F5 was the brainchild of “acoustical engineer” and mandolinist Lloyd Loar who was employed at Gibson at this time, and was introduced along with the rest of the “Master Model” instruments in about 1922: the H-5 "Master Model" mandola, K-5 "Master Model" mando-cello, L-5 "Master Model" guitar (the first “modern” archtop guitar), and style 5 "Master Tone" (later to become "Mastertone") banjos. He was very important in the design and development of these instruments, but his role in the production of these instruments and to what degree he participated in the building of them is unclear to me. It did include the "resonance tuning" of air chambers; the hand tuning of soundboards, backs, tone bars (which the F4 did not have BTW), and f-holes. He was motivated by the work of the great violin makers and sought to include their features in the development of his fretted instruments. It is also no question that quality control at the Gibson plant was very high when he was there and it dived when he left. Some of the Loar F5’s had a “Virzi Tone Producer”, a spruce disk suspended from the soundboard inside the instrument.
The Loar period instruments are like the holy grail to many, and they are priced accordingly. Some of the fame of the F5 mandolin is no doubt due to Bill Monroe’s 1923 model, which he invented or defined bluegrass music with.
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Rian Gitar og Mandolin
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