Fitting a lid damper/stay to an antique coffer

hand forged 'wrought iron' effect cabin hook?

Put a chain round it with a padlock.

Bill

Good to see someone thinking "outside the box" ;-)

Modern gas struts would not be in keeping, but how about a friction damped stay?

Doesn't it depend on the OPs definition of safe? Kids cannot get access at all. Kids can get access but heavy lid may drop on little fingers or heads. Any mechanism that holds the lid open cannot trap/pinch little fingers. Lid too heavy so some mechanical assistance is required to open it. etc.

That's fair. I was thinking of something which allowed access but either slowed the fall, or required a positive action to close, the lid.

Yes, that's what I was thinking of but couldn't come-up with a foolproof way of doing it. Another thought is to wind a couple of torsion springs that operate on arms that partly counterbalance the lid. It may come down to using a gas strut disguised in a bit of old oak, but only if I can't devise something else.

Show them photos of kids with traumatically amputated fingers.

Tell them not to play with the coffer.

Owain

And also, just how valuable is this antique? One could envisage a "free standing" solution that is not attached to it at all. Or something minimally invasive, for example attached by screws that could subsequently be removed, concealing the holes with hard wax filler, for example.

None. It wasn't a toy then. Plastic toy boxes are available.

It's a request a bit like asking for a child friendly chain saw or angle grinder.

In other news ....

Every door in a house could trap small fingers. Has anyone thought about fixing that?

Remove the doors. That fixed, back to your box - something like this:

In nurseries and primary schools, you often see flexible plastic covers between the hinge side of the door and the frame - to prevent young children getting their fingers in there and suffering serious damage due to the mechanical advantage putting huge pressures on at that point. There is far less of a problem around the rest of the door (likely to be painful, but not serious) and even that is often mitigated by dampers or damped door closers.

A similar approach worked very well with my kids, but society has changed since then (in so many ways, not all good) and the same approach for the grandchildren would not be appreciated.

Box or child ?. Put a concrete block on top of the box lid.