Obviously Ganesha can be depicted in many ways and the form seems to evolve at the whim of the carver somewhat.
The statue i posted might not be anicent, but it does have some age to it and seems to be in a public space where it serves some community purpose. All i am trying to do is understand to the best of my ability the intention of the carver of my hilt. The parallels between the statue and my hilt (body and trunk position, texture of trunk, shape of mouth and position of tusks, presence of human nose as well as trunk, etc.) lead me to believe that the hilt carver based his figure (at least in part) on certain previous aspects depicted in older figures (even if not ancient, i think we must accept this statue as being at least "historical" in some sense). Though i wasn't sure if this hilt was intended as a Ganesha before, based on this statue i would say it was...that is, if this statue was also intended to be Ganesha.
Here is another more modern mask of Ganesha that also shows the same mouth, tusk position and trunk attachment as my hilt.