early 1900's
Howard Arms was a trade name used by Sears Roebuck on revolvers made by their subsidiary company, Meriden Firearms Co., from about 1905 to 1915. The only "model" designation would be the caliber, .38 or .32.
According to gun data .com they did. I am currently looking for parts for one of these tip-up .32 cal. revolvers.
Secret Service Special was a trade name used on inexpensive revolvers retailed by the Rohde-Spencer Company of Chicago. The Howard Arms Co name was distributed by H&D Folsom, usually on shotguns made by their subsidiary company, Crescent Firearms, or imported from Belgium. If R-S ordered revolvers from Folsom, they would quite possibly have both names.
HOWARD ARMS CO. Tradename used by Meriden Firearms Company (1905-1918) on revolvers. Meridan was a subsidiary of Sears Roebuck and produced firearms for sale through their catalogs and retail stores.
EASTERN ARMS CO. was a tradename used by Sears Roebuck & Company on revolvers made by Meriden Firearms.Meriden Arms was 30% owned by Sears, and manufactured a line of top-break revolvers and shotguns in the 1905 to 1920 timeframe. Almost all their production went to Sears. The Meriden revolvers closely resembled the Iver Johnson revolvers of the time because the plant manager at Meriden, Andrew Fryberg, had previously worked for Iver Johnson. And unfortunately, there are no public records of exactly when a particular gun was made by them.
The Production Budget for A Farewell To Arms was $5,000,000.
HOWARD ARMS CO. Tradename on shotguns used by Fred Bifflar & Company of Chicago, Illinois, made by Crescent Fire Arms Company. I would expect that the same hardware store would have used the same tradename on handguns which were probably made by the same company. Unfortunately, both are long out of business but Crescent was purchased by Stevens which was purchased by Savage Arms, so someone at savagearms.com may be able to tell you something. A little additional research found an answer on Ron Gabel's site that says Meriden Arms made the Howard Arms revolvers. The only dates I can find for Fred Bifflar are 1870-1890, but it may have started earlier and must have ended later. Crescent was established in 1892 and Meriden Arms didn't exist until 1905 and I find several references connecting these two companies with Bifflar retail business.
Hopkins & Allen Arms Co. Fifty Years of Gunmaking 1867 - 1917 by Joseph T. Vorisek is about the best book on H&A.
North American Arms, formerly known as Rocky Mountain Arms, are a company that specialise in mini-revolvers and semi-automatic guns which are available in a variety of calibers.
See a gunsmith- Out of production for nearly 100 years.
Charter Arms is a the name of a company. They are an American company that produce revolvers. The company was founded in 1964 and one can find more details of their products from their website.
Very little since there is no published sn data.